Street Pianos

“Play Me, I’m Yours”, is the title of Luke Jerram’s internationally touring artwork. Street pianos are installed around large cities all over the world, purely for the public to engage with and take ownership of. The public have been enjoying playing the pianos in the following cities so far; San Jose, Pecs (Hungary), New York, Blackburn and Burnley, Barcelona, London, Sydney, Birmingham, Grand Rapids, Cincinnati, Belfast, Bath, Bristol, Bury St Edmunds and Sao Paulo, all from 2008 till 2010. Each city has its own respective website, so that the public may engage with the installation further and upload their photos or video performances and share them with the world.

They get installed in various public places, so far including; parks, bus shelters, outside galleries, on bridges, squares, train stations, markets and even on ferries. There have been 16 different cities that have taken part in this art installation, using over 300 pianos in total globally. It hast been estimated that over 1 million people worldwide have so far engaged with the pianos.

It is completely up to the city and the community how long the piano remains in place for. A lot of pianos become sculptural pieces when they are decorated and personalised, and in some way they are a blank canvas, musically and sculpturally, for the communities that they sit in. It’s a great project, as it not only engages the public, but it also invites them to interact with their community spaces. It reaches out to the public, and also invites them to take more interest into their existing community.