Artistic game of ‘Telephone’ on view at the New Museum

If you’ve ever played the kids’ game “Telephone,” you know how it goes: One person whispers a word to another, who then whispers what they believed they heard to the next person and so on. The “truth” subtly changes from the first to the last person.

Now imagine doing that with 49 artists and using paintings instead of words.

That’s the idea behind “Circle of Truth,” an exhibition at the New Museum Los Gatos that runs through March 10. Los Angeles artist Shane Guffogg, who co-curated the show with Laura Hipke, started the artistic ball rolling in 2009 when he created the first painting, a blend of primary colors and shapes with vertical streaks running top to bottom.

That painting — lacking both comment and the artist’s identity — was packed in a crate along with an identically sized blank canvas and sent to the next artist, Lisa Adams, who was charged with finding the truth in the painting she received and putting her reaction on the canvas. Adams’ work was sent to the next artist and so on, until famed American pop artist Ed Ruscha, the 49th and final collaborator, completed his piece — a monochrome that spotlights the word “In” — as far from the first work as you can imagine.

Some artists were frustrated by the process, and one planned to return the painting and canvas, saying he couldn’t complete the exercise. “They said, ‘Well, you committed to this, so your blank canvas with your name will be your response,’” said Maureen Cappon-Javey, NUMU’s new executive director. The artist, Michael Andrew Rosenfeld, went back to the canvas and ultimately created a striking piece that’s No. 23 in the series.

Cappon-Javey said it’s important for visitors to go through the paintings in order to get the full effect. Most of the artists wrote essays that accompanied their painted response, providing a little insight into the process.

“As you go through, sometimes it’s obvious what their response was, sometimes it’s not so obvious,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of great responses. It talks about truth, and you see what someone sees and doesn’t see and how they respond to that.”

LANDMARK MEETING PLANNED >> There’s still a lot of buzz around the idea for a new San Jose landmark, which will be the subject of a community meeting Thursday at the Corinthian Grand Ballroom downtown. The leaders of the San Jose Light Tower Corporation — Jon Ball, Steve Borkenhagen and Christine Davis — will give an update on the project and its timeline.

You might recall that the San Jose City Council was poised to discuss Arena Green near SAP Center as the site for the proposed landmark back in January. But groups including the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club expressed their concerns about the potential environmental effects of a structure close to the Guadalupe River, and the issue was pushed back.

Borkenhagen said that conversations have been had with those groups and that Thursday’s meeting is part of a larger community outreach effort. And admittedly, there’s still a lot of confusion over the project, which started as a plan to recreate San Jose’s iconic light tower. But the current plan calls for an “ideas contest” to find the design of a landmark structure — not necessarily a light tower and almost certainly not a replica of the 1881 one.

The meeting is 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Corinthian Grand Ballroom at 196 N. Third St. Go to www.sanjoselighttower.org for more information on the project.

BOOST FOR ALZHEIMER’S RESEARCH >> Nearly $1 million was raised at the Part the Cloud luncheon, held Wednesday at Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club in Menlo Park, to fund cutting-edge Alzheimer’s research. Academy Awardwinning actress Marcia Gay Harden shared her story as a caregiver for her mother, who had Alzheimer’s and died last year.

Since Michaela “Mikey” Hoag founded Part the Cloud with the Alzheimer’s Association in 2012, it has raised more than $30 million and funded 34 research grants.

The event, chaired by Stephanie Harman and Heather Pietsch, drew more than 330 guests, including Hoag, Dagmar Dolby, Lauren Miller Rogen, Leah Hearst, Lisa Mooring and presenting sponsor Stephen Silver.

STAGE HOUND: BAD NEWS FOR CAST OF FOOTHILL MUSICAL THEATRE’S “BULLETS

OVER BROADWAY THE MUSICAL” >> They’ve got a real scene-stealer in the show who happens to have adorable brown eyes and a ton of charm — not to mention a wagging tail.

Cardi, a Chihuahua mix, won the role of Mr. Woofles — the constant canine companion of actress Eden Brent, played by Caitlyn Papp in the show, which opens Feb. 28. Cardi — a female who’s doing the ageold stage tradition of gender swapping — has her own heart-rending backstory, too, as she’s a pup at Pets In Need, a Redwood Citybased animal shelter. You can catch Cardi on stage through March 17; tickets are available at foothill.edu/ theatre.