After months of bilingual correspondence and the intervention of the Azorean president, the Bermuda National Gallery's exhibition of Azorean art opened to rave reviews in New England on June 29.

Since its US debut, "A Window on the Azores'', has received mention on numerous American television and radio shows, as well as in magazines and newspapers, including the Sunday Best column in the Boston Globe.

The exhibition also received a citation from the White House as one of the most successful White House Millennium Council Projects. These projects encouraged municipalities in America to generate ways to celebrate the people, traditions and history of their area.

`A Window on the Azores' was a show originally put together by the Bermuda National Gallery as a tribute to Bermudians of Portuguese descent. It was staged in Bermuda from October 1, 1999 to February 19 of this year.

The idea to send the show to Portuguese communities in the United States was hatched early on in the planning process.

Bermuda National Gallery Senior Curator Marlee Robinson said: "When we started to put the collection together over four years ago, we knew that there were a lot of Azoreans in the New Bedford, Fall River and Providence area.

Over 50 percent of the population there is Azorean Portuguese.'' "We wanted to travel the exhibition, both to give it exposure and to spread the cost, and we looked into sending it there.'' It was not an easy task moving the show from Bermuda on to New Bedford, as it involved extending the loan times on artwork from over 30 different lenders.

When the Carlos Machado Museum in the Azores refused permission for the show to travel, the idea was shelved.

A foreign visitor to the Bermuda National Gallery and a series of fortunate coincidences revived the concept.

Mrs. Robinson said: "When someone from New Bedford came here and said `we need this show', we said, `they're going to say no'. By chance, however, the president of the Azores was in New Bedford having lunch with the mayor. He thought it was a great idea.'' The Azorean president, Carlos Cesar, then set the wheels in motion to bring `A Window on the Azores' to New Bedford.

Coordinating the show proved difficult, however.

No museum in New Bedford was large enough to house the entire exhibition, which eventually had to be split between the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the New Bedford Art Museum.

Language barriers further complicated the process.

Mrs. Robinson said: "It took four museums from three different countries working in two different languages to create one show in two locations!'' Everything came together in the last week of June however, and the show's organisers -- Bermudian, American and Azorean -- paraded through the streets of New Bedford to the museum doors, officially opening `A Window on the Azores' once again.

Museum to museum: VIPs, bands and guests paraded the four blocks from the New Bedford Whaling Museum to the New Bedford Art Museum as part of the opening ceremonies for `A Window on the Azores'.