The first Leonardo Challenge was established under a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts which helped the Museum create a series of Design Arts exercises for children. As a fundraiser for the scholarship fund, the Museum asked adult artists, designers, architects, painters, sculptors etc. to undertake one of the exercises it had adapted for school children from Leonardo’s Notebooks. Amidst the helicopters and submarines, the canal locks, mechanical music machines and the printing press, Leonardo invented the idea of improvisational creativity.

Leonardo demonstrates the origins of invention in the playful application of his imagination.The annual Challenges have engaged over 300 artisans and artists and have produced stunning variations on clothespins, buttons, matches, springs, wooden ice cream spoons, pencils, beaded chain and playing cards. Designed by Sally Hill, the Museum's designer, the invitations have become her playful way of solving the 'problem.' Lehman Brothers Engravers have generously produced the elaborate invitations each year from the very beginning as their donation to the Museum's scholarship fund.