The wildly successful A Window on the Azores art exhibition will now travel to the US.

And it looks like the contemporary Acorean art collection, assembled by the Bermuda National Gallery, will catapult the local gallery into the centre of the international art scene.

"This is the first time a National Gallery exhibition has travelled abroad,'' said gallery senior curator Marlee Robinson.

And she hinted that the upcoming American debut could pave the way for other Gallery exhibitions, like the Bacardi Limited Biennial, to appear in the US.

A Window on the Azores was the first ever international exhibition of contemporary Acorean art. It was organised by the Bermuda National Gallery to mark the 150th anniversary of Portuguese settlement in Bermuda.

The 103-piece exhibition will now be shipped to New Bedford, Massachusetts where it will go on display on June 29 at the New Bedford Museum and the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Development and Opportunities Minister Terry Lister called the move a "major step'' for the Bermuda National Gallery, propelling it from a local museum to an international player.

Mr. Lister said that the fact that the original A Window on the Azores catalogue was going to be used in America showed that local cataloguing and design was of international quality.

The Minister also noted that the upcoming American exhibition will also provide Bermuda with a great deal of exposure, boasting the Island's cultural tourism initiatives.

A New Bedford newspaper has already devoted front-page coverage to Bermuda because of the exhibition.

And Ms Robinson said that a top American school, Brown University, was creating a summer programme to complement the exhibition.

There will be four festivals in the Bedford area during the exhibition's run, prompting officials to predict that attendance could reach half a million people.

A Window on the Azores, which opened in Bermuda on October 1, 1999, is travelling to New Bedford because the city has a large Portuguese community.

"There's a large Acorean population in New Bedford,'' noted Ms Robinson.

"The Bedford community has a strong whaling history.'' Robert Pires, who has become an honorary ambassador for the local Portuguese community, said there were a lot of Portuguese on the Island who had relatives in the New Bedford area.

"It's great that it will be travelling to our cousins,'' he said. "This reinforces the connection we have with this area and the Azores.'' Making history: This Tomaz Vieira painting will be one of the 103 pieces from the first international exhibition of contemporary Acorean art, A Window on the Azores, that will travel to New Bedford, Massachusetts. This will be the first time one of the Bermuda National Gallery's exhibitions, assembled to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Portuguese settlement in Bermuda, has travelled abroad.

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