ArtsWatch

Delaware Symphony Orchestra music director David Amado has inked a two-year contract extension, keeping him on the podium through the 2010-11 season...Awarded an honorary posthumous doctorate from the University of the Arts last week was Edna Andrade, the artist who taught at the school for more than 30 years. Also handed honorary doctorates were university trustee Ira Brind and former UArts president Miguel Angel Corzo...If you see a "Curious?" sign in a storefront or shaved from the scalp of a man walking around town, it's all part of the Franklin Institute's new branding campaign. Which reminds me, they're just calling the place the "Franklin" now....G.O.P. money man and arts guy David Girard-diCarlo, chairman of the Blank Rome law firm, has been nominated U.S. Ambassador to Austria. We wish him many happy moments in the Demel pastry shop in Vienna (whose Marmorguglhupf klein is pictured)...Newspapers are shedding staff again, and among those taking buy-outs at the Washington Post are music critic Tim Page. At the New York Times, Bernard Holland has left after 27 years on staff.