Hands On Pianos
Whether your specialty is chopsticks or Chopin, you’ll be the keyboard maestro this July in the Upper Valley. Thanks to the Hands on Pianos community project, colorfully decorated pianos will be turning up at bus stops, parks, sidewalk plazas, farm stands, general stores and other unexpected places around the region for the duration of that month, available for people of all ages and skill levels to explore, enjoy and engage in impromptu music-making.
Kicking off the Hop’s 50th-anniversary season, Hands On Pianos is modeled after other “street piano” projects in cities around the world. The Hop’s version involves 50 instruments, most of them “heavily loved” donated pianos that will be transformed into eye-catching marvels by local artists. The project will also include a handful of “partner pianos” already in place in schools, community centers and businesses willing to make them available to all comers. Keep an eye on this page for more information about uploading photos and videos of yourself playing the instruments.
All 50 pianos will be festooned with the Hop’s festive Hands On Pianos placard and will be featured in an interactive web site to which piano donors can offer their instrument’s history: was it the keyboard on which they practiced their first lessons? The center of Aunt Mary’s front parlor sing-alongs? The nucleus of a first rock’n'roll band or stab at songwriting?
In addition, the project is a chance for a colorful public final chapter for dozens of Upper Valley pianos before they go to the Great Steinway Store in the Sky. With some 1,200 parts under their “hoods,” pianos don’t improve with age, and older pianos often require maintenance and repair that are eventually not worthwhile. Scan the classifieds on any given day and you’ll see pianos available for free. As Henny Youngman might have said, “Take my piano—please!”
During the month-long project, each piano will be checked daily and those in exposed locations will be guarded against rain by means of removable tarps. At the end of the project, the donated pianos will be mined for usable and recyclable parts.
Already, agreements are in place with multiple towns, businesses and property owners to place pianos in a host of unusual and welcoming places around the Upper Valley, including Ledyard Bridge, the Tip Top Building in White River Junction, Huse Park in Enfield, the Dartmouth Green, the Storrs Pond Recreation Area, the Montshire Museum of Science, the Co-op Food Stores, and dozens more locations.
Hands On Pianos is sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College in celebration of its 50th anniversary, with generous support from Mascoma Savings Bank, Hanover Transfer & Storage, ALTARIA Development, LLC; and AVA Gallery and Art Center.
Hopkins Center for the Arts
I have a good piano with a broken leg near Woodstock, VT. If you want it, you can have it..free, if you move it. Iwould be happy to donate it for this project! Hope to hear from you soon!
Gayle, you can find a donation form above. Please complete the form and we’ll let you know we’re able to adopt your piano!
Will there be a map showing the locations of all the pianos in case someone wanted to tour and play all 50 instruments?
Yes, Bill. In the coming months we’ll be creating a map of the locations along with the history of each donated piano. Stay tuned!
Will there be scheduled times for people to play these pianos? When is it expected to go online?
We hope that people will be respectful and avoid playing late at night or early in the morning, but otherwise they are available for the public all day, every day for the month of July.
The Hands On Pianos project will take place July 1-July 31. Our website with more detailed information will be online in June.
are you accepting artist submissions for piano players if so where are the forms that you advertised in Seven Days?
I am a pro piano player and would like to be featured on your best one or come and play them all!
http://www.dawnahammers.com
We are accepting artist submissions–you can download the form from the above right ‘Decorate a Piano’ section.
We do hope you will come and play all the pianos. You’ll be able to share video and pictures of yourself playing on the Hands On Pianos webpage.
How can someone request a piano placement. I’d love to get one at the Norwich Farmers Market. We have a gazebo that could shelter it or we could put it under a tent.
Thanks
Steve Hoffman
Manager
Norwich Farmer’s Market
Found out about Hands On Pianos on VPR driving home one night. If it werent for that I wouldnt have known about it. It was a great segment and a great way to get the information out there. Thank you.
Steve,
We have already settled on the placement of the pianos. However, if you can arrange your own pick-up and delivery of a piano, we would happily include a piano at the Farmers Market on our website and promotional materials for Hands on Pianos. Please feel free to contact me at hop.outreach@dartmouth.edu if you want to discuss that possibility.
Just found this link. We have a piano for possible donation. Any chance it could still be accepted despite the fact that the deadline has passed?
My son and a friend submitted designs a while back – just wondering when the artists will be chosen? Thanks.
Maggie
Maggie-
We will be notifying artists by April 1.