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Former Houston Symphony Music Director Has A(nother) Big New Job

Andrés Orozco-Estrada, who was in Houston from 2014 to 2022, will become music director of the Swedish Radio Symphony next fall. He is also music director of the orchestra and opera house in Cologne and is now in his last season as chief conductor of the RAI National Symphony in Turin. - Moto Perpetuo

The New Number-One Factor In Public Radio Stations’ Scheduling Choices

With federal funding now at zero, as one exec puts it, “Station programmers are looking at their schedule and saying, ‘Where can I save money here?’” - Current

Harlem Stage Undertakes Its First-Ever Tour

“The bus was hard to miss as it cruised purposefully, South to North, making pit stops at pivotal civil rights landmarks. Its exterior was all black with large pictures of Black actors and the words ‘Harlem Stage Presents FREEDOM RIDERS.’” - The New York Times

Here’s The First Smithsonian Museums Exhibition To Be Cancelled Due To The Government Shutdown

“The National Portrait Gallery has postponed the opening of an exhibition for its triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition as the Smithsonian Institution prepares to run out of federal funding. The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today exhibition was expected to open next Saturday, October 18, and remain on view through August 30, 2026.” - Hyperallergic

Philadelphia Museum Of Art Renames Itself As What Most People Call It Anyway

The change to “Philadelphia Art Museum” was simply an acknowledgment of basic reality, says Luis Bravo, PhAM’s design director. And yes, the new acronym is PhAM, not PAM. There’s also a new logo, a new typeface and even new museum guard uniforms. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

About Half Of Alaska Public Radio Stations Get Temporary Emergency Funding

Fourteen of the state’s public radio stations, the ones deemed to serve Alaska Native people, will receive a total of $4.5 million from the federal government’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. Those stations were highly dependent on grants from the now-defunded Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington, DC. - Anchorage Daily News

“Mad Max” Director: AI Will Change Art. Technology Always Does

Artificial intelligence, George Miller said, represents “the most dynamically evolving tool in making moving image.” “As a filmmaker, I’ve always been driven by the tools. AI is here to stay and change things. The balance between human creativity and machine capability, that’s what the debate and the anxiety is about.” - Variety

Lord Of The Irish Dance Michael Flatley At 67

He hasn’t danced for nearly a decade. He has damaged bones and tendons and claims to know all his vertebrae by name. But he’s still fiendishly driven. - The Guardian

In The Current Environment, Is There Room For Truth-Telling Art?

These episodes highlighted the vulnerability of the US’s state-funded cultural sector under an autocratic populist president determined to suppress artistic expression perceived as intolerably “woke”.  - The Art Newspaper

New Venice Music Biennale Director Spins Another Take On Contemporary Music

The invitation for Caterina Barbieri to lead the Music Biennale gave “a platform to another side of contemporary music that is generally excluded from these more institutional places.” There is “another scene that often doesn’t get taken quite as seriously because it’s not as technically virtuosic.”  - The New York Times

How Contemporary Art Is Taking On Nigeria’s Identity

“Many of these artists deal with the idea that Nigerian culture has to be taken as a multinational and multi-ethnic question, in which artists are free to disrupt and redirect different narratives in service of their own artistic vision. So when we talk about independence in this exhibition, it’s not just about political independence. - The Guardian

Musicians At Venice’s Opera House Declare Strike To Protest New Conductor

“The strike will be held on Friday 17 October, the date of the opera house’s first performance of a run of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, which will close its 2024-25 season. The theatre’s musicians and staff have for months called for Beatrice Venezi’s appointment as music director to be revoked.” - The Guardian

Dozens Of Bob Ross Pictures To Be Auctioned To Help Support PBS

Ross, with his distinctive afro, soothing voice and sunny outlook, empowered millions of viewers to make and appreciate art through his show The Joy of Painting. More than 400 half-hour episodes aired on PBS (and eventually the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) from 1983 to 1994, the year before Ross died of cancer at age 52. - NPR

Report: Depiction Of Black Characters In Children’s Books Is Significantly Down

A report by charity Inclusive Books for Children found that of the 2,721 books surveyed, only 51 featured a Black main character, down by 21.5% since 2023. - The Guardian

The World’s Digital Infrastructure Runs On American Technology. Europe Wants To Reclaim Its Sovereignty

In the 21st century, those who control digital infrastructure control the conditions of possibility for democracy itself. Europe faces a choice: build sovereign technological capacity or accept digital colonization. - Noema

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