The nose knows

Barry Hanau

Barry Hunau, whom you may know from his clever editorial cartoons in this paper, has completed a project for the Chabot Science and Space Museum in Oakland. Hunau, of Lafayette, did about a dozen cartoons for an exhibit about the life of Tycho Brahe, a 16th-century Danish nobleman who was famous for both his advances in astronomy and for sporting a metal nose after his real one was sliced off in a duel. The nose is the key, Hunau explains. “The museum acquired a giant nose (about 5 feet tall). It has nose hair, snores and generally is pretty creepy. They had no idea what to do with it. So the science director decided to create an exhibit about Tycho Brahe … It is an interesting departure for me from Jewish editorial cartoons,” he mused. You can find the nose and Hunau’s cartoons on the ground floor just inside the Dellums building.

Art for art’s sake

Aaron Marcus

When SFMOMA reopens on May 14, one of the new exhibits, “From Typeface to Interface,” will feature computer and typographic art by Berkeley’s Aaron Marcus. The exhibit will include five original works by Marcus and three 1960s posters by Swiss graphic designers — among some 100 that he has donated from his collection. The museum’s assistant director told him that the new exhibit was inspired “by the large number of acquisitions” from Marcus to SFMOMA.

Just in time for baseball season, George Krevsky and Carrie Lederer have mounted “Safe at Home: A Short Survey of Baseball Art.” The show, which opened on April 3 in the Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, will run until June 12. For information, visit www.BedfordGallery.org … You still have a few days to see Rabbi Lawrence Kushner’s exhibit, “Revealed Radiance,” at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco. His paintings, which he calls “urban impressionism,” will be on display until April 14 … And if Poland is on your travel itinerary, consider visiting the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw to see some 40 large-scale wall reliefs of historic wooden synagogues created by artist Frank Stella. They are on display until June 20.

The best-kept secret

Rabbi Stacy Friedman

Do you know there’s a TV show that focuses on our Bay Area Jewish community? It’s “Mosaic” and it airs monthly (sometimes twice a month) on KPIX at 5 a.m. If you’re not an early riser, set your DVR and see the host, Rabbi Eric Weiss of the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, chat about what’s going on with Shalom Bayit’s Naomi Tucker (April 24), Congregation Rodef Sholom’s Rabbi Stacy Friedman (May 15) and Jewish Community Relations Council’s Rabbi Doug Kahn (May 22). In June, the topic will be the LGBT community and in July, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. P.S. Full disclosure: I’m the show’s producer. 

Short shorts

Nancy Grand, Bernard Osher and Roselyne “Cissie” Swig are co-chairs of Jewish Vocational Service’s annual Strictly Business Awards luncheon. It’s slated for May 2 at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. Tickets are available at www.jvs.org/strictlybusiness … Adrian Breitfeld, CFO of the JCC of San Francisco, has been named a finalist for the CFO of the Year award for a nonprofit organization. The event, sponsored by Deloitte and a number of other businesses, will take place May 12 at the Fairmont Hotel, where the winner will be announced … On March 23, Congregation Beth Am’s Rabbi Sarah Weissman and Eric Weissman happily welcomed a new baby — their first — son Maverick Jacob Weissman.

This columnist can be reached at [email protected].