Maud Obe is the Director of Aid to Artisans. She has 15 years of experience in designing and managing economic empowerment and development projects for the artisan sector across the globe. These projects benefitted more than 5000 artisan businesses and linked them to different markets. She is an expert in organising capacity-building workshops, one-on-one coaching, tradeshow preparation, export readiness training, and marketing events.

Aid to Artisans
Aid to Artisans is a division of Creative Learning, a non-profit organisation based in Washington DC. We create economic opportunities for artisan groups worldwide where livelihoods, communities, and craft traditions are marginal or at risk.

Art Historian and General Director of Spira – revitalisation of heritage. With over 20 years of experience in Cultural Heritage, Catarina has a PhD in Contemporary Art History from UNLisbon, a Diplôme des Hautes Études in Tourism from IREST – Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is the author of several projects in the sector: Rota do Fresco, patrimonio.pt, AR&PA Iberian Biennial of Cultural Heritage, Study Cultural Heritage in Portugal: Assessment of the Economic and Social Value. She is Spira’s founder, general manager, and Coordinator of the Cultural Heritage Management Course at Católica Porto Business School.

Spira – revitalização patrimonial
Spira is the leading company in the Cultural Heritage sector, creator of the Rota do Fresco, the 1st Cultural Tourism Route (1998), and promoter of the 1st Study on the economic and social value of Cultural Heritage in Portugal (2020). Spira operates in the areas of Communication, Training, and Consultancy; Heritage Education; and Cultural Touring.

Cultural manager, university professor and Portuguese author, was Secretary of State for Culture in the XIX Constitutional Government, Director-General for the Arts and Commissioner for the Candidacy of Oeiras as European Capital of Culture 2027. He has a degree in Law from UL and a postgraduate degree in Arts Management from INA, he completed a PhD program in Public Policies at ISCTE-IUL. Jorge Xavier is the Municipal Director of Education, Social Development and Culture for the Municipality of Oeiras.

Oeiras City Council
Created on the 7th June 1759, under the impulse of the then Prime Minister, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Oeiras remained a rural Council until the second half of the 20th century. ince then, a slow but consistent path has transformed this territory into a quality urban space, based on principles of quality, innovation and preservation of its heritage.