The patron of the school, Antonio José Arroyo (1856–1934), was an engineer by profession who wrote about literature, music and fine arts.

It was located in a building on Rua Almirante Barroso that had been built for the António Augusto Gonçalves ceramics school, founded in 1924, with which it merged.

The school was headed by Falcon Trigoso, and in a five-year course covered ceramics, stone carving, lithographic design and other skills as well as fine arts.

The painter Lino António became director in 1953 and overhauled the curriculum to include fine arts, lithography, decorative painting, sculpture and pottery, carving and artistic furniture.

[5] On 30 September 2014 José Luís Ferreira of the "Greens" parliamentary group asked in parliament about the lack of classes and of a cafeteria, both of which were causing student protests, due to delays in completion of the work.