Born in Lisbon in 1950, Maria João Bustorff graduated in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Lisbon in 1973, she continued her studies and internships in Paris, London and the USA. With a 40-year career in Portuguese public administration, (Ministries of Labor, Internal Administration, Health, Education, Culture, and Foreign Affairs), she taught at the New University of Lisbon (Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities), as an Invited Assistant Professor. Between 1987 and 2006 she was seconded by successive Ministers of Education to the Board of Directors of FRESS, of which she was Delegate-Director and later President. She was part of the XVI Constitutional Government of Portugal, as Minister of Culture. Since 1997 she has dedicated much of her activity to the design and management of projects of historical and artistic interest in Brazil and Portugal, and to issues of Vocational Education and Training. In late 2013 she joined the Board of Trustees of FRESS, of which she was President from June 2016. He is currently a member of the board of FRESS, responsible for the School of Crafstmanship, Workshops, and Commercial devisions.

Fundação Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva
In 1953, the banker and collector Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva donated the Azurara Palace and part of his private collection to the Portuguese State. Thus was born the Foundation with his name and a Museum-School was created with the purpose of protecting and disseminating the Portuguese Decorative Arts and the crafts related to them. Today, besides the Museum of Decorative Arts, the Foundation today hosts 18 workshops of traditional Portuguese arts and crafts, keeping alive a highly important body of intangible heritage and knowledge, and ensuring specialised conservation and restoration of Portuguese heritage. The Foundation also runs a school dedicated to the teaching of arts and crafts, the Institute of Arts and Crafts, in which our mission to preserve knowledge and heritage takes top priority. After several decades, the Foundation continues to be a prestigious reference in the dissemination and preservation of Portuguese decorative arts heritage and knowledge.