The provincial authorities in the Historical Territory of Bizkaia have always shown particular concern for the proper management of the area's important cultural heritage.
In 2009 the Department of Culture of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia sought the assistance of one of the world's most prestigious cultural advisory organisations in preparing a diagnosis of the situation as regards public knowledge of the cultural heritage of Bizkaia and drawing up a proposal for future action in this regard.
An analysis was conducted of the infrastructures in place for publicising the cultural heritage of Bizkaia (the full range of museums, including those fully or partly owned by the provincial authorities, private museums subsidised by the Provincial Council that seek to disseminate the local cultural heritage, cutting-edge art and even the internal structure of the Provincial Department of Culture in terms of cultural heritage management). This analysis was then filtered through benchmarking of management structures. The conclusion drawn was that there was a need for a management unit that could bring together all the organisations and infrastructures in Bizkaia, with a view to ensuring that they were managed efficiently and that maximum use was made of all investments in them by the Provincial Council.
On this basis, setting up a Single Management Unit in Bizkaia was seen as offering the Provincial Council the following opportunities: Diputación Foral de Bizkaia:
Accordingly, a publicly-owned company answerable to the Provincial Council was set up under Provincial Regulation 5/2010 of December 22, 2010, with the name BizkaiKOA.
BizkaiKOA is to be autonomous in the management of its functions, within limits, and must in all cases act with a view to ensuring public interest, meeting the cultural needs of society in Bizkaia and promoting knowledge and dissemination of the historical and cultural legacy of Bizkaia in all its manifestations. To that end it is to conduct such activities and programmes as may be deemed necessary to ensure that the said legacy is passed down to future generations in good condition.
BizkaiKOA is to facilitate the dissemination of the cultural heritage of Bizkaia, through awareness and social promotion actions and co-ordinated management based on the efficient drawdown of resources, and to preserve, conserve, safeguard, publicise and promote that heritage for future generations.
The objectives of BizkaiKOA thus include strategic planning, co-ordinated management, efficient monitoring, checking and inspection of those infrastructures for spreading the cultural heritage of Bizkaia which are owned entirely or in part by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, and the efficient monitoring and checking of the remaining infrastructures of the same type located in Bizkaia.
Its offices are at Calle María Díaz de Haro 11 in Bilbao.
To attain the aforesaid objectives, BizkaiKOA is to carry out the following functions:
The governing and administrative bodies of the provincial-council-owned company BizkaiKOA are:
BizkaiKOA is structured in two parts: common services and projects.
The common services section comprises five directorates:
The company is currently handling the following projects:
The organisation's funding comes from:
BizkaiKOA has its own treasury account, through which all the funds received by the organisation are managed.