The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture conveyed in Angra do Heroísmo "the hope, almost certain" that there will be "good news" for culture this year in the Azores.
 
Avelino Meneses spoke at the granting of two paintings by Azorean painter José Júlio de Souza Pinto from Novo Banco Cultura to Angra do Heroísmo Museum, highlighting that "important" cultural projects are under way on almost all islands of the archipelago.
 
After the conclusion of the Regional Network of Libraries and Archives with the opening of Luís da Silva Ribeiro Public Library and Regional Archive in Angra do Heroísmo, the Regional Government is committed to the implementation of an "old project." It intends to provide "all islands with a quality museum unit," stressed Avelino Meneses.
 
The Regional Secretary mentioned that this goal "is in the process of being achieved." As he emphasised, the Vila do Porto Museum Centre opened last summer on Santa Maria, the Time Museum will open shortly, being the first building of Corvo Ecomuseum, and the works of Francisco de Lacerda Museum on São Jorge have recently started.
 
Terceira Island provides a "substantial contribution" to this regional project, through the main centre of Angra do Heroísmo Museum, the Batista de Lima Military History Centre and project for the conversion of Bettencourt Palace into a museum. The latter will allow the exhibition of pieces belonging to the Francisco Ernesto de Oliveira Martins collection, said Avelino Meneses.
 
The Regional Secretary also mentioned that this project involves the coordination work between "larger regional institutions and smaller municipal and local documentation," through the increased use of technologies.
 
On the other hand, Avelino Meneses expressed his expectation that the "consortium of bankers and politicians" at today's ceremony in Angra do Heroísmo and at the granting of two portolan charts to Carlos Machado Museum next Thursday in Ponta Delgada "may contribute to increased confidence in culture and, consequently, to greater reliability."
 
"Only then, and perhaps slowly, democracy, which has already given so much to the development of mankind, will break free from the quasi-liturgical legal regulations and become a political system whose advantages go far beyond the mere fact that is better than a dictatorial regime," stressed the Regional Secretary.