(upbeat music) - Leonardo da Vinci was perhaps the most curious individual that ever lived.

Born during the Renaissance, he epitomizes everything about the Renaissance, bringing together the science and the arts and culture, and advancing inventions and technology at that time.

I think what's most fascinating about him is his accomplishments in the realm of art and also in the realm of science and technology.

He did not distinguish between the two.

In the area of invention, he examined and studied flight and wanted to figure out how man could fly, and created numerous drawings and illustrations of aircraft.

What we at the Science Center are particularly intrigued with is his work in the area of science and technology.

The Science Center started in the 1990s.

We opened a facility in South Bethlehem.

It was called the Smart Discovery Center.

And we were doing programs at that science center and out in the community.

In 2003, we had the opportunity to merge with Leonardo da Vinci's Horse.

That was an organization that was led by Charles Dent that had the incredible vision to give Leonardo his 24-foot horse cast in bronze.

And we ended up merging with them.

And so we became the Da Vinci Science Center after that.

And the timing worked out well because we were about to move into our second location, which was in West Allentown, and we opened as the Da Vinci Science Center.

And since we have been the Da Vinci Science Center, really dedicated to inspiring young people to be curious like Leonardo.

(gentle music) - Leonardo da Vinci for artists is quite an inspiration.

The inspiration really comes from that spirit of creativity, that spirit of inventiveness.

And to just have a little piece of such an amazing person and amazing mind enter into my work was a fantastic inspiration for sure.

The initial framework of the artwork was to do a lot of reading of his work and just to find connections of how I can connect that to the mission of the Science Center here.

The challenge in this work was to take the ideas and sketches of da Vinci and try to use some of his studies on wing design and relate that to how a child would approach that and how a child would see that.

To connect that to making a good piece of public art that people will understand and appreciate and also something beautiful, which wasn't too hard to find when you're using da Vinci as an inspiration.

Public art is a unique situation where you're engaging a wide audience that isn't necessarily there to see artwork, right?

They're there to live their lives, and, you know, the artwork is in the community, right?

You're sort of bringing your artwork to them.

And so I think the most successful parts of doing public artwork and mural is that, I say journalism in a way of, to report what's going on, sort of, to reflect, to hold a mirror up to the neighborhood that you're in and the community that you're involved with.

And to rattle complacency, I think, comes from just trying something new, trying something creative, trying something that people haven't seen before to get people to think in a way maybe they haven't thought before through my artwork, even if just for a second at a time when they're driving by my mural, (whimsical music) - The mural started with me coming up with lessons for the Lehigh Valley Children's Centers students to do.

(whimsical music) I made these lessons for like kids of all different ages, gave them to the teachers.

The teachers did these lessons with the students, and then I got boxes of all of their artwork that they created from the lessons.

(whimsical music) And then I took what they came up with and the things that they thought about, like, what did they dream of?

I was able to marry it with the ideas that I had naturally when I think of science.

I was inspired by just my fascination with how science and art can collaborate well together and how that happens naturally.

Because I feel like when you think about science, science is about investigating, it's about experimenting, it's about all of those things that naturally occur like in our minds.

But at the same time, as an artist myself and as an art teacher, one of the things that I notice is a lot of students will lose the ability to believe that they should experiment with art.

They start to think that it's more about drawing technically.

And I think that if you allow yourself to enjoy the process of what you are making, that experimentation naturally like lends into the natural part of science.

So I was inspired to be a part of this because I believe in the two together.

I think that Da Vinci is crucial, because like in my mind, the way that I think about our future, we need problem solvers, creative thinkers.

We need people to be able to make the things that are gonna change the world.

And that's all about science and the way that Da Vinci has things set up.

(whimsical music) Especially because kids were involved in it, I feel like it, it needs to be happy, it needs to be bright.

Kids think in color.

They think in this world that is brighter than what our world sometimes looks like, but that's also all about hope.

(whimsical music) And so I feel like in order to be able to bring in what they envision for our world is important to make it as lively and colorful as they see it.

(whimsical music) So I wanted it to be this world that they envision or they want to see because it's important for us as adults to be reminded of that.

- [Lin] In the Science Center, we have an experience called Curiosity Hall, where you get introduced to Leonardo the scientist, Leonardo the inventor, and Leonardo the artist.

And the one related to Leonardo the inventor, you create a flying machine and give it various properties and then you see it on a huge 54-foot screen flying over the Lehigh Valley.

(inspiring music) We also have a program on Leonardo the artist where you're creating a portrait, and you're using some of the techniques that Leonardo used.

(inspiring music) In downtown Allentown that celebrates da Vinci and his curiosity, and hopefully will impact thousands of people.

This is their Science Center.

So if we can inspire curiosity and the love of learning like Leonardo, we will have made a great impact on young people.

That's really a huge vision for the future.

(inspiring music)