Government appoints “personalities of merit” for National Council of Culture

O ambassador António Monteiro, the president of the Founders' Council of the Fundação de Serralves, Ana Pinho, and the architect Manuel Aires Mateus are among the “ten personalities of recognized merit”, appointed by the Government for the National Council of Culture.

Economist Ana Rita Bessa, former executive administrator of the Leya Group and former MP of the CDS-PP, and art historian Alexandra Curvelo, professor of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the Nova University of Lisbon, are also part of the remaining ten nominated by the Government for the plenary of the advisory body in the field of Culture, according to the order published today in Diário da República.

The list is completed by actor and director Diogo Infante, artistic director of the Teatro da Trindade, film producer Pandora da Cunha Telles, conductor Rui Massena, president of the Portuguese Association of Museology, João Neto, and historian and researcher Samuel Rego, former director-general of the Arts, current director of the Escola Superior de Dança da Universidade Politécnica de Lisboa.

The mandate of the persons now appointed by the Government “has a duration of three years”, according to the order signed by the Minister for Culture, Youth and Sport, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, on the 05th, which “produces effects on the day following its publication”.

The National Council of Culture (CNC) has the task of “contributing to the definition of cultural policies, issuing opinions and recommendations whenever requested by the member of the Government responsible for the area of culture or services and bodies” of the sector.

The competencies of the CNC were reviewed by the Government, in council of ministers, in July, and took shape in the Decree-Law published on September 7.

The review took place at a time when the plenary no longer met since 2010, as Margarida Balseiro Lopes underlined in July, justifying the decision with the need to strengthen the listening of the cultural sector.

The reform then announced went through the revision of the CNC constitution and operation regime, with the extension of the composition of the plenary to new entities and the reorganization of the specialized sections, considering new areas of the sector, in order to increase the “capacity for strategic articulation, interinstitutional coordination and monitoring of cultural public policies”.

Among the main changes, we highlight the reinforcement of the plenary of the CNC, with the integration of about 50 new entities, through its representatives, including the Commissions for Coordination and Regional Development, higher education institutions and cultural foundations, in addition to the bodies of the governance area of culture.

The specialized sections have also been reorganized, and there is a specific area of the book, archives and libraries. The specialised section for the cultural patronage was also created.

The representations in the different sections were also extended to entities in the fields of audiovisual, copyright and related rights, arts, cultural accessibility, sustainability, internationalization and institutional cooperation.

As part of this review, the specialised section of the arts will be able to comment on the selections of the competitions launched by the Directorate-General for Arts (DGartes).

At the time of the announcement of the reform, Margarida Balseiro Lopes said that this amendment aims to ensure “greater transparency” and “greater pluralism”, as well as “responding to recommendations that have been repeatedly made by the Court of Auditors”.

The National Council of Culture was established in 2006 and was revised in 2013, governed by Decree-Law No 132 of that year, amended by Decree-Law No 178/2026 of September 7.

According to the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, the first meeting of the new plenary will take place on 14 December at Figueira da Foz, under the VI Cultural Forum on Culture and Local Power.