Functions

As stated in Law 11/2011, of December 29, restructuring the public sector to streamline the administrative activity, the National Council for Culture and the Arts has as functions "to advise the Government on cultural policy as a whole, to ensure support for artistic creation and ots promotion, and to make its assessment."

The CoNCA aims to ensure the development of cultural activity, to assist in the management of cultural policy in terms of artistic creation, to participate in policies regarding support and promotion of artistic and cultural creation, and to organize a cultural audit system of public equipment and grants while taking into account the promotion of culture and social returns.

Article 4 of the same law states that its functions are as follows, in these words:

a) To prepare the annual report on the state of culture and the arts in Catalonia.

b) To monitor and evaluate activities related to distributing, promoting and fostering cultural activities in Catalonia.

c) To encourage and promote debate between the creative world and the Generalitat and to act as an intermediary, when necessary.

d) To inform the Government and the Parliament about the state of cultural education and, especially, education in professions related to the cultural sector.

e) To participate in defining strategies and national goals in matters of culture, in conjunction with the department responsible for cultural affairs.

f) To release mandatory reports on the drafts of laws that concern issues related to cultural policy.

g) To emit judgments and formulate recommendations in matters of culture and cultural policy, either on their own initiative or on request from departments within the Generalitat or organizations connected with the Government or the Parliament. The creation, on a national level, of cultural organizations or facilities associated with artistic creation must always be subject to a mandatory report.

h) To issue mandatory reports regarding the nomination of the directors of cultural facilities dedicated specifically to artistic creation, when that task corresponds to the Government.

i) To design the action plan for providing support to artists and associations working to promote, foster, distribute and afford projection to artistic creation, in keeping with the Government’s cultural framework and with the contract program defined by the National Council for Culture and the Arts.

j) To evaluate the program contracts that govern the relationships between the department responsible for cultural affairs and the cultural facilities owned by the Generalitat or in which they participate.

k) To carry out the cultural auditing of cultural facilities owned by the Generalitat and by those public or private entities that request it, and to carry out a biennial auditing of the cultural impact of the subsidies awarded, which will be available to the public.

l) To hand out the National Culture Awards on behalf of the Generalitat of Catalonia.

m) To create collaborative relationships with the organizations dedicated to consultation and industry participation within the department responsible for cultural affairs.

n) To protect the languages of Catalonia and the Val d’Aran, and provide for their presence, within the field of artistic creation.

o) To ensure equal opportunities for men and women in the fields of artistic creation and culture.

p) To participate, through a mandatory priority report, in the projects for competition guidelines and all the calls for applications for financial support for cultural creation, which must be awarded through public competition. In the exceptional event that the criteria laid out in this report are not adhered to, the Office of Support for Cultural Initiatives must present an adequate justification.

q) To participate on the commissions convened by the Office of Support for Cultural Initiatives to evaluate subsidies awarded for the promotion, diffusion and projection of artistic creation, which are required to follow competition procedures.

r) To promote the creation of an interactive tool, in conjunction with the department responsible for cultural affairs, intended to centralize information on subsidies and other support initiatives offered by the public administration and any private institutions that wish to be included, with the aim of facilitating the coordination of calendars, goals and criteria, though each body is at liberty to make its own decisions with respect to requirements and the allocation of resources.

s) Any other function that may be commissioned by the department responsible for cultural affairs.