Eli Whitney Museum

Leonardo's Diary

Leonardo's Notebooks are a diary – a daybook. The pages are undated – an urgent to do list without the comfort or calibration of time. Still, time is ever-present. Leonardo draws sundials, water cocks, and the new mechanical clocks that will reorder the world. He proposes inventions in drawings with two views overlaid as if to animate their construction. His eye and hand stop time. He catches the shape of a splash mid-air, mid-second. He proposes a playful alarm clock to rouse him before the rooster crows. He wrestles with time. He carries the Mona Lisa with him for 4 years before he can call her finished. He tarries with a commissioned bronze horse for 19 years before he abandons it. He addresses time as a thief of everything.

The Challenge

The Challenge is to capture the markers of time that give it meaning.

Time is the most commonly used noun in the English language and yet it is elusive. Clocks and calendars tell time, but rarely its meaning. Consider the cast off watches too precious to abandon that inhabit the depths of drawers and still remember the last minute and hour of their service. Consider the lines on a doorframe that your grandmother marked atop your head each year to remember your growing. Consider the daughters of time: Anticipation and Flight that stretch and compress experience. Consider colors that change in the first light of dawn.

Time is omnipresent and elusory. Seize it. Or flow with it. Play with it. Disguise it. Or unmask it. Be timely or timeless. Capture personal meanings. Embrace time with the clock that beats in your chest.

The Benefit

Leonardo da Vinci painted with unrivaled vision, explored science and modern logic and invented with pure imagination. The Leonardo Challenge celebrates one of his inventions – improvisational creativity. One hundred artists, designers and playful spirits will transform a common subject – this year, time – with wit, whimsy and artistry.

The April 26th benefit will revel in those artists' visions. Through their generosity, and yours, the evening will support workshops and outreach to train a next generation to explore the world with adventurous immediacy.

Single Ticket: $75

Galileo Supporter : $250
• includes 2 benefit tickets & tee shirt.
• underwrites a contributing artist & workshop project.
• acknowledged in online catalog.

Huygens Supporter : $500
• includes 4 benefit tickets & 2 tee shirts
• underwrites a contributing artist & community outreach project.
• acknowledged in online catalog.

Newton Supporter : $1250
• includes 4 benefit tickets & 2 tee shirts
• underwrites an artist, designated workshop & scholarship.
• acknowledged in print, press release & online catalog.

Einstein Supporter : $2500
• includes 6 benefit tickets & 2 tee shirts
• a meeting to focus, direct and then assess the impact of your gift.
• acknowledged in print, press release & online catalog.

The Doctor : $5000 +
• includes ∞ benefit tickets & 4 tee shirts.
• a Dr. Who collection (which is bigger on the inside than it appears on the outside.)
• acknowledged in print, press release & online catalog.

The Trains Depart on Time(lapse)

Our intricate 30 foot, half ton A.C, Gilbert Train layout is transported to its off season lair in 2 minutes, 30 seconds.

Actually it takes 4 hours and 20 Apprentices.It will return Friday, November 24 at 12 noon.

Time lapse video filmed and edited by Apprentices Jonah Heiser and Connor Larouque.

Buy Tickets

Artist's Call for Entries: Please click the PDF link below to print out an Entry form to mail to us, or sign up online at our Registration site by clicking on the Buy Tickets link.

If you choose to sign up online, you will be asked to log in (if you are already in the system) with your email address, or create a new account. The online shopping cart is quite simple to use. Please call us if you have any questions. 203.777.1833.