Jesús Otero Museum and Foundation

The Jesús Otero Museum and Foundation is a municipal museum of contemporary art dedicated to the Cantabrian sculptor Jesús Otero, located in the Plaza del Abad Francisco Navarro, in the historic center of Santillana del Mar, next to the Collegiate Church of Santa Juliana. The center gathers the work donated by the artist to his native town and is organized in the old house-workshop, with exhibition halls and an outdoor garden where sculptures are also displayed. The institution was created in 1994, from the donation made by the author in 1993, and was linked to the municipal management through a board of trustees. The museum conserves more than fifty sculptures, as well as drawings, sketches, utensils and work tools, which allows us to learn about the artist's production and creative process. Its patrimonial interest lies in the preservation of the original creation space and in the representation of an author closely linked to tradition and the Cantabrian rural landscape, with works in stone and wood of strong formal sobriety and expressiveness. It is, therefore, a cultural resource of reference in Santillana del Mar to understand contemporary Cantabrian sculpture from the local context in which it was conceived.