LEONARDO CHALLENGE: A PRIME AND PRIMO EVENT

                                   Kiara Matos - 1,2,3  Set of porcelain bowls

You may remember being at a carnival and having a barker exhort you to “Pick a number. Any number” with the hopes of luring you to play a card or shell game or wager on spinning a wheel of fortune.  Now the Eli Whitney Museum in Hamden is issuing a call of its own, enticing artists from all over the country to enter the 18th   Annual Leonardo Challenge, named in honor of the great inventor and artist Leonardo Da Vinci, this year entitled “Enumerated Invention.”

Every year since 1994 , the museum, located at 915 Whitney Avenue in Hamden, has selected an object, from clothes pins to playing cards, ice cream spoons to measuring tape, checkers to keys, bottle caps to pencils to use to create a picture, mobile, item of clothing or furniture, game or puzzle to contribute to a unique fundraising event to benefit the museum’s year round and summer programs for children, and for scholarships for those who could not afford to attend otherwise.

This year’s gala will take place on Thursday, April 26, from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. and the topic of interest is, you guessed it, numbers.  Numbers are a fixed aspect of life, the backbone of mathematics and the way we count, days, objects, everything, from addition to algebra, back to the Egyptians and Greeks, from the Chinese abacus to the most complex computer systems.

Are you intrigued by the fact that historians using high magnification techniques have discovered numbers and letters hidden in Da Vinci’s painting of the Mona Lisa?  Even though number notation was not standardized in his time, he used mathematical symbols and terms to communicate his own unique ideas.  He is even quoted as saying “Let no one read my principles who is not a mathematician.”  His inventive mind is credited with conceiving solar power, the parachute, helicopters, calculators and tanks as well as being a masterful painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist and engineer:  a true Renaissance man.

This year’s challenge encourages artists to pick a number that appeals to them and explore it, revealing its magic, mystery and mirth.  Every year the museum’s associate director Sally Hill creates a lamp and a second entry to contribute and this year is no exception. “It’s hard to believe it's been 18 years. Just after each one of these, Bill (William Brown,  Director) and I begin to worry we won't be able to come up with another good idea. And then February comes around and we send out invitations to the artists – and the work that comes in is just magical, or whimsical, or…reassuring that wonderful creative fresh ideas are always going to be around as long as people are enjoying themselves doing it.”

For tickets ($55), call the museum at 203-777-1833 or online at www.eliwhitney.org.  Museum hours are Sunday noon-5 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday, open Wednesday – Friday noon – 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.  This event will be open for viewing until May 13.

Let the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci be your inspiration to create any “number” of fascinating fleets of fancy.