the idea: get local artists to paint donated pianos and then put them out on the street so that anyone can play them
the ideator: Luke Jerram and Celebrity Series of Boston
Street Pianos Boston is an artist’s dream. And not just visual artists, musicians and performers of all kids can get sucked into this project. It is the brain child of Luke Jerram and was started in 2008 in New York City and London. I remember when the project came to NYC, which is about an hour from where I grew up. My dad sent me the link and said I should go see it, even though I was in college in Virginia at the time. Five years later, it’s come to the streets of Boston for the 75th anniversary of the Celebrity Series of Boston and I got to paint one of the pianos.
But this project isn’t just about how cool it is to paint on something as precious as a piano, something that I both adored and was intimidated by for the twelve years that I played it. It’s also about figuring out how to get 75 pianos and 75 artists and a space in Boston big enough to hold them all for almost a month. It’s about the connection that happened between the artists as we slipped between the aisles created by our transforming instruments. It’s about the people who will sit down and plunk out the one song they know and the people who will sit down and play an entire sonata, right on the sidewalk. It’s about stopping to stare and listen in the middle of a busy street.
It’s about things like the music in this video just spontaneously happening.
And that, my friends, is what community art is. Just in case anyone asks.
There are tons of pictures of my piano in the process of being painted on my facebook page as well as pictures of the other wonderful pianos. Just look up #streetpianosboston and you’ll find it. Then you’ll have to go find one of the pianos. And of course, there will be plenty more pictures and videos once these babies hit the streets.
I, for one, and planning to find every piano and play Fur Elise on it (one of the only songs I remember now that I live in a sadly piano-less apartment). There will be many recordings.
And for anyone who cares to take this one, I really want to see if someone can make it to every piano in one day. There will need to be pictures as proof.
Don’t you just want to get your hands on these?
