Art,  Art/Design,  Cityscapes/Urban,  Documentary/Street

Pianos About Town

Old Town Piano Playing
Old Town Piano Playing

Pianos About Town is a collaborative project among Bohemian Foundation, the Downtown Development Authority and the City of Fort Collins. Each of these entities brings their own passion and expertise to the Pianos About Town project to produce a whimsical, interactive artistic installation, adding an element of surprise to Fort Collins. The concept behind Pianos is twofold: (1) for residents and visitors to experience seeing art in action as the pianos are painted in public by local artists, and (2) for residents to have the opportunity to both play the pianos and enjoy them as works of art as we rotate the finished pianos about town. A couple weeks ago I watched and talked to the artist on this piano named Gail Whitman. Each artist is given a theme and two weeks to paint the piano in the town square. She did a heck of job as was the young man tickling the ivory was not doing too bad.

Retired. Having fun with photography. Journal daily. Meditate daily. Learning haiku/poetry. Have a love for fountain pens.

8 Comments

    • Monte Stevens

      Music does that and Fort Collins supports that. I’m not sure but there must beat 15 pianos at any one time in Old Town. Each is playable and those that aren’t are offer to people or placed in a temporary museum.

  • John

    I have seen this done in other cities too… on many levels this is really wonderful but I wonder how the instruments are protected (or not) in inclement weather. I am a musician too, so I worry about the pianos. Of course they are probably old and destined for disposal (like so many old pianos) but if they are in too bad of shape they would not be much fun to play or listen to.

    Your picture does make Fort Collins look really nice.

    • Monte Stevens

      Thyy say on their website that the pianos do go bad due to weather, abuse and aaging. It is more about the artistic aspect. The artists work on them in the square allowing people to interact with them. It’s good for everyone.