Voices en Español

Earlier this month I went to a Degas exhibit sponsored by the foundation of a Spanish insurance company. The friend  I went with told me that Spain had a long history of financial institutions sponsoring art. I figured there must be some kind of tax break involved. A useful piece in today’s New York Times explains why so many international art exhibits in Madrid are sponsored by Spanish banks.

Because of a peculiarity of Spanish law (with origins that reach back nearly 500 years, when banks were lending societies associated with religious orders), modern Spanish savings banks — commonly known as cajas in Castilian and caixas in Catalan — are strictly nonprofit institutions. While they may make money, they have no shareholders and pay no dividends.

Profits, therefore, are meant to be devoted to the “public good” and the banks are at liberty to define this however they see fit.

Back in the day, it typically meant helping out farmers through lean times and troubled harvests. Today, however, through a vast array of obra social (public work) foundations, the savings banks support medical research and reforestation efforts, grant scholarships, finance historical preservation, sponsor art exhibitions or even establish their own cultural centers.

Find the full New York Times article here and the accompanying slide show here.

Photo: Scuplture of a 14-year-old ballet dancer by Edgar Degas. Currently on exhibit at Fundación Mapfre in Madrid until Jan 6.