NEW BEDFORD, MA—New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park in collaboration with ArtWorks!, the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth will sponsor an exhibition called At the Crossroads: Traditions in Azorean Culture, beginning June 5 and ending December 31, 2003. The exhibition will be featured in the non-profit ArtWorks! gallery, located at 384 Acushnet Avenue. At the Crossroads celebrates the rich traditions and strong cultural bond between New Bedford, Massachusetts and the nine island Atlantic archipelago of the Azores, which lie about 800 miles off the coast of Portugal.

The connection between New Bedford and the Azores is historical and contemporary. As early as the 1840s, men from the Azores served on New Bedford whaling ships. Many settled permanently in New Bedford. The city today has a rich cultural mix of people who were drawn to the area first by the whaling industry, later by the textile and manufacturing industries, and finally, by the fishing industry. Over 64% of the region’s population is of Portuguese heritage.

At the Crossroads was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Defense to help fulfill requirements of the 1995 Agreement on Cooperation and Defense between Autonomous Region of the Azores, Portugal and the United States. The agreement allows the U.S. military to access the air base at Lajes on the Island of Terceira, and calls for the U.S. to implement cooperative activities in agriculture, education and cultural exchange. In addition to the exhibition, the project included oral history interviews and a video documentary. Future projects will include website development, lectures, publications and educational materials.

At the Crossroads showcases traditional handcrafts and the artisans that make them, incorporating photography and the artisans’ own words to bring the craft objects to life, telling the story of what it means to be a traditional artisan in a modern, post-industrial world. The exhibition includes examples of Azorean ceramics, lace, weaving and basketry, as well as art forms that are less familiar to American audiences: figurines from maize mats, corn husk dolls, fish scale art, and the crafts of blacksmiths, coopers, and scrimshanders. Photography by John K. Robson illustrates the striking natural beauty of the Azores Islands and the islands’ artists at work.

The ArtWorks! gallery is open free to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Thursdays 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Hours are subject to change. ArtWorks! is universally accessible. For more information on the exhibition, contact ArtWorks! directly at 508-984-1588.

The City of New Bedford is a vibrant commercial fishing port located on the south coast of Massachusetts with a population of nearly 100,000. Located on the South Coast of Massachusetts, the city is about an hour south of Boston, and just one half hour from Providence, Rhode Island and Cape Cod. The City of New Bedford, in collaboration with the New Bedford Whaling Museum, will sponsor the Second Annual Conference on Azorean Culture, September 13-15 at the Whaling Museum. The conference is an initiative of the University of the Azores.
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth is one of the five public universities in the Massachusetts system offering educational programs, research, and continuing education in the liberal and creative arts and sciences. UMass-Dartmouth’s roots trace back more than a century and today this institution offers more than 61 undergraduate programs of study and 19 graduate programs with over 300 faculty and nearly 7,000 students. The university has an active Portuguese Studies Department, which sponsors international conferences and publishes the Journal of Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies. A history of Portuguese Art and Architecture is taught along with the literature of Mainland Portugal and the Azores.
The New Bedford Whaling Museum holds one of the world's largest and most outstanding American whaling and maritime history collections. Highlights of the museum include the a half-scale replica of the whaling bark Lagoda, a re-creation of a whale ship foc’s’le, a 66-foot blue whale skeleton, and the soon to be created Azorean Whalemen’s Gallery, which will highlight the cultural connection between New Bedford and the Azores. The whaling museum collection embraces over 500 whaling implements; 2,000 paintings, prints and drawings; 35,000 original photographs and negatives; 2,000 scrimshaw items and carvings; thousands of ethnographic objects; hundreds of ship models; and an extensive collection of ship’s logs and records of international voyages. Two years ago the museum hosted an international exhibition titled A Window on the Azores.

ArtWorks!, established in 1993, is a multipurpose community arts organization located at New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park. A non-profit 501c3 organization, the mission of ArtWorks! is to increase public access to the arts; to support artists through a subsidized studio program; and through these efforts, to contribute to the economic revitalization of the City of New Bedford. The ArtWorks! 15,000 square foot facility has three galleries, two floors of artists’ studios, a community ceramics workshop, and public classroom space in the MariLynne Graboys Wool Youth Art Studio. Last year, Artworks! produced ten exhibitions, hosted nine studio artists in residence, and participated in a wide range of community based projects, including a contemporary folkcraft and symposia series titled Journeys: Portraits of New Bedford’s Portuguese Culture.

New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park was established by Congress in 1996 to help preserve and interpret America’s 19th century whaling history. The park, which encompasses a 13-block National Historic Landmark District, is the only National Park Service area addressing the history of the whaling industry and its influence on the economic, social and environmental history of the United States. The National Park Service, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior, preserves over 380 nationally significant natural and cultural resources throughout the U.S. for the enjoyment and inspiration of this and future generations. The National Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and stewardship throughout the U.S. and the world.

For more information on New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park call (508) 996-4095.

Additional website information:

New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, www.nps.gov
ArtWorks!, www.artworksforyou.org
New Bedford Whaling Museum, www.whalingmuseum.org
City of New Bedford, www.ci.new-bedford.ma.us
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, www.umassd.edu

Prepared June 3, 2003

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