Regional Government pursues strategy to create new audiences in the area of culture, says Avelino Meneses
The Regional Secretary for Education and Culture stated in Angra do Heroísmo that the Azorean Government is pursuing the goal of promoting the creation of new audiences in the area of culture.
Avelino Meneses spoke at the launch of the mobile application "Azores Agenda," stressing that the Government plans to create a cultural passport in order to facilitate "the access of citizens to culture."
The application now presented is a mobile version of the Cultural Agenda of the Azores Culture Portal, the official portal of the Regional Directorate for Culture. According to Avelino Meneses, it is now part of the strategy intended to disseminate contents and knowledge.
For the Regional Secretary, this "new" tool allows public access to information about cultural events taking place on all the islands of the Azores or promoted by Azorean entities outside the archipelago.
In addition to the Cultural Agenda, the Cultural Azores Portal reconciles important contents, such as varied institutional information, digital archives such as the Parish Records and Passports of the Azores, the Funds and Collections of the Regional Archives of the Azores, Digital Libraries such as the Azorean Encyclopaedia, the Inventories and Registries, the virtual visits to the Azorean museums, among others.
Created in early 2011 and improved to its current version in 2014, the Azores Cultural Agenda has innovative features insofar as operates on a sharing and joint programming platform between this governmental department and cultural agents.
Currently, the Cultural Agenda has 126 promoters, public and private, with more than 4,000 cultural events promoted on an annual basis.
In addition to the external services of the Regional Directorate for Culture, the Agenda also includes cultural information provided by other regional departments, Azorean municipalities and "casas do povo" (local community centres).
The Azores Cultural Agenda is a free and accessible tool for all. It is now available for mobile devices, namely smartphones and tablets, thus becoming an important means for the dissemination of the Azorean cultural calendar.