From The Blog
What If Banks Gave Space Back to the Community?
By: Amanda Trainor March 7,2026
We have a lot of conversations at Brooklyn Coop about the lack of affordable spaces for community groups to gather, organize, and celebrate, and the responsibility we have to offer up our branches as free space. Last year fellow CEANYC member Kendall Allison approached us with a request they thought might come across as odd – would Brooklyn Coop be willing to host a comedy show fundraiser for solidarity economy groups? We loved the idea. We have the space, so why not?! Opening our doors this way has made me think more about the relationship between financial institutions and public space.
On a recent trip to see family in Madrid, Spain, I was reminded that financial institutions supporting arts and culture isn’t a new idea. I revisited one of my favorite cultural centers, La Casa Encendida. It was founded by Caja Madrid, the regional savings bank in Madrid. Spanish cajas aren’t exactly the equivalent of credit unions, but they were originally created with a similar purpose: to serve poor people who were excluded from banking elsewhere.
Cajas were legally obligated to build cultural centers to serve the public through what are known as obras sociales. When the majority of these cajas collapsed during the financial crisis in 2008, Spain’s arts and culture scene was hit particularly hard since the cajas were the main source of funding . Today, their social programs are carried on by private nonprofit foundations.
La Casa Encendida sits on the edge of the neighborhood of Lavapiés, a historically working class and immigrant neighborhood known as a center for organizing and activism. With the recent boom in tourism to Spain, the neighborhood is now highly sought after – a story all too familiar to our members.
La Casa Encendida hosts permanent and temporary exhibits and offers free spaces like an outdoor rooftop terrace, a play area for kids, and a study room with a game library. One of their permanent exhibits supports the neighborhood’s identity by collecting old signs from local businesses that have closed down. Business owners donate their signs as a way to preserve their memory.
Imagine a New York City—the world’s wealthiest city, with the highest concentration of centi-millionaires and financial institutions—where the wealthy were expected to provide free and public space for everyone to access, and to support the culture and collective memory of the immigrant communities who shaped this city.
Bk Coop can help fill this gap. We take this role so seriously that we built a beautiful new event space inside our new branch at 1308 Myrtle Ave. We invite members to be creative about how we use it. What do you want to see? Local artists work on the walls? Book talks? One member suggested we host a pop-up family portrait studio! Reach out to amanda@brooklyn.coop with your ideas.