Piano technician Piotr Salwinski tunes the piano at 37th and Market today.
Public art pianos placed on corners, parks and pedestrian plazas from 30th Street Station to Clark Park were met with smiles, stares and intrigued musicians during their debut today.
The University City District is overseeing the project, which is entitled Heart and Soul and is similar in spirit to public piano project in several cities worldwide that combine visual and performance art.
“Hey, how’d you get that piano here?” one passerby asked a man playing the piano placed in the central plaza area of Clark Park, the piano that is farthest West.
Anyone can play the eight pianos until this project ends on June 17. They were transformed into works of art by local artists and placed at high-traffic pedestrian areas today. A list of the locations and bios of the artists are available here. See more photos below.
June 7th, 2012 at 6:29 pm
University City District!!! if you can read this, please keep free pianos outdoor everywhere, forever!
This is such a great gift. I’m taking full advantage of it.
Thank you for the deetz West Philly Local!!
June 9th, 2012 at 1:26 am
I agree! I enjoy playing these artistic pianos. They may not last forever but 10 days is really too short. People in New York City keep their artist-decorated public painos for the entire month of July. We should at least keep them out until 4th of July so pianists can play our beloved patriotic songs on them!
June 9th, 2012 at 4:34 am
I think as long as they have covers and people are properly putting them back on after they play, it would be perfect for West Philly. They have only been here for about 2 nights now and I have seen how people from the town come together and indulge in this. It’s actually really beautiful and I’m really happy that these exist right now. I feel like having them here is definitely a tease in a way. A lot of people thrive on playing in open spaces and I feel it would really benefit the west philadelphia community…
to be able to walk anywhere and be able to find a piano in a short distance and play a song is such a beautiful idea and I’m glad that University City District did this..
but everyone out tonight enjoyed it so much.. and we wish for it to stay.
(Please forward this to appropriate people)
Love y’all.
x
June 16th, 2012 at 12:36 am
it’s great to have pianos around for people to play but it’s a problem that some drunken people hit the keys really loud and randomly for an hour at 2-3am! Something should be done to limit the access when it’s really late at night.