Transformation through art and social commitment

Based on the problem of vandalization of branches, Banco Santander – together with Fundación Santander – created the “Your Mural Your Place.”

The objective is for the community to take ownership of the space and become part of the artistic intervention. In this way, it manages to improve Santander’s relationship with the community and, at the same time, give visibility to neighborhood artists.

“Your Mural Your Place” drives the work of young talents throughout the country from the call for bank branches in their town to intervene. This project arises from the union of neighbors, artists, local entrepreneurs and the Santander team.

The implementation began with interventions in the Social Integration Branches (SIS). It was a collaborative development and reflection on the identity of each neighborhood. Santander convened clinics to address the topic and to collaboratively create each mural. Employees from the branches, artists, and the community of each town or neighborhood participated in these meetings.

“It is the art that comes to life on our walls, on the walls of our branches. Is image that gives face to the city and arises from the union of neighbors, local entrepreneurs, artists and our team,” the organizers reinforce.

For that, Santander gives up its facade and, in this way, innumerable gray walls were filled with lines and figures. In turn, these walls become the voices of those who participate, those who live nearby, those who work in the bank and, above all, those who contemplate and enjoy the powerful readaptation of the space.

Santander To date, 17 branches have been intervened Around the country. Of them, eight belong to what they call SIS.

Santander’s Social Integration Branches understand – and shape – the specific characteristics and needs of the community in which they are inserted. That’s why drive social and environmental transformation and support the artist who interacts through the language of color.

To choose the artists, Santander made an open call on the Santander Foundation Instagram. After identifying the most notable ones, they were selected by proximity to the place. Some of them were even chosen because they belonged to or were related to the community where each branch is located.

In the entity’s plans is the idea of adding approximately 10 new branches each yearselected from among the sustainable and the vandalized ones, to continue celebrating that art and inclusion reach the neighborhoods with the help of the entity and its foundation.