The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture stated in Angra do Heroísmo that the new regional legislation for museums, published in the Official Journal, is primarily intended to promote a "network activity" in light of the principles defended internationally since the late 20th century.
 
Avelino Meneses mentioned that the legislation establishes the Network of Visiting Museums and Collections of the Azores. These collections are a "new reality in Portugal" in the field museology, but already recognised in several European countries.
 
"In the context of its operation, the network respects the idiosyncrasies of each institution, while stimulating cooperation among them," said Avelino Meneses. The government official spoke at the Angra do Heroísmo Museum during the opening of the International Colloquium on "Detention, Exile and Deportation in the Portuguese Colonial Empire."
 
The Regional Secretary stressed that "greater or lesser success" of a museum depends on the ability of the Government and other parties to establish a "working partnership" with different institutions and bodies, namely with citizens, municipalities and schools; the latter play a key role in heritage education.
 
With the new Legal Scheme on Azorean Museum, which follows the recent implementation of Corvo Eco-Museum and the creation of museum unit on all islands, the Government aims to "adopt a new management scheme" for the "revitalisation" of museums, said the government official.
 
In this regard, Avelino Meneses remembered that the Regional Government has recently changed the opening hours of museums, which are now open on weekends and closed on the same day of the week. This measure aims to "better meet the cultural aspirations of audiences and become a powerful tourist resource in the present and the future."
 
At the opening of this international conference, a partnership between the universities of the Azores and New Lisbon, the Regional Secretary for Education and Culture underlined the importance of the Azores in the history of globalisation, from the time of settlement to the present day. It is a "very complex identity" marked by "a world view" that makes the islands "the centre of the world" and, simultaneously, the "isolation" that makes them "the end of the world."