The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is a Portuguese private institution of public utility whose statutory aims are in the fields of the arts, charity, education and science. In addition to the areas occupied by the Foundation's management and various departments, it includes a large auditorium, a space for temporary exhibitions, a congress area with auditoriums and other rooms, as well as a large building that houses the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and the Art Library. The entire complex is set in the Gulbenkian Park.

In 1983, the Modern Art Centre, consisting of a museum and an education centre, was opened at one end of the park.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation also has a delegation in the United Kingdom (UK Branch) and a centre in Paris (the Calouste Gulbenkian Cultural Centre).

The Foundation has an orchestra and a choir that performs throughout the year within a regular season, and organizes solo and collective exhibitions of work by Portuguese and foreign artists. It also organizes international conferences, meetings and courses, awards subsidies and scholarships for specialist studies and doctorates in Portugal and abroad, and supports programs and projects of a scientific, educational, artistic and social nature.

Moreover, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is actively involved in publishing, especially through its program for university textbooks.

It also fosters co-operation projects with Portuguese-speaking African countries and East Timor pursuing the millennium goals, promotes Portuguese culture abroad, and operates a program to preserve evidence of the Portuguese presence in the world.

In addition to the activities pursued in Portugal and abroad for the promotion of Portuguese culture, the Foundation supports the Armenian Diaspora worldwide in order to preserve its language and culture.

We are all indebted to its president Dr. Rui Vilar, for sponsoring this historically significant event to take place in a magnificent setting like this, and to Dra. Elisabete Caramelo in particular, for spontaneously offering to help with the organization of this event. Dra. Elisabete Caramelo is licensed in Social Communication by the “Universidade Nova, Lisbon”. She was a journalist and communication assessor for politics and has today the responsibility of the communication sector for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

She is also a Student of a Counseling Course in Gestalt, which is coordinated by the Luso-Spanish Society of Psychology in Gestalt.