Why is it that when I go to the laundrette I see the same people each week and yet nobody talks to one another? Why don’t I know the names of the people who live opposite my house? Play Me, I’m Yours was designed to act as a catalyst for people who regularly occupy the same space, to talk and connect with one another. Listening to the radio programme made by NPR about this project it seems to have worked. (See link to right.)

Disrupting peoples negotiation of their city, the pianos are also aimed to provoke people into engaging, activating and claiming ownership of their urban landscape.

The pianos have also levered many hidden musicians from out of the woodwork. It has become apparent that there are hundreds of pianists out there who don’t have access to a piano to play. This project is about providing access to musical instruments, promoting creativity and creating music in public. 

When the project was installed in Birmingham March 2008, the city council financially supported the project, yet we were banned (for the usual health and safety reasons) from placing any piano on council owned ’public’ land.  As a result each piano was publically accessible yet on privatly owned land. The negotiations and discussions about ‘public’ space and its use, has become part of the arts project.   

After the project was completed in Birmingham, many communities too long term ownership of their piano, others had to be removed as they were too badly damaged by the British winter weather.

Over 3 weeks its been estimated that over 140,000 people across Birmingham have engaged with the pianos. (A breakdown can be found at www.lukejerram.com ). Statistics like these add weight to the argument that regional art galleries are in many ways failing to reach large and diverse audiences and to really engage with their communities.

June2008.  5 of the orginal Birmingham street pianos appeared at the Vale Community festival.

August 2008.  The final remaining Birmingham piano was taken to an allotment where its new owner is growing vegetables and cress inside its frame.

October 2008, ‘Play Me, I’m  Yours’ is presented in Brazil. With the support of a special ‘Streetpianos’ charitable fund, 8 pianos were distributed across the city of Sao Paulo. At £1,000 each (a years wage for some people) many people had never seen a real piano before, let alone been given permission to play one. The project made national news there- watch TV report… http://www.pianosderua.com.br/index.php/materias-na-tv/ 

After the Mostra SESC festival the pianos were donated to schools and community groups in the area. See www.lukejerram.com for more info.

January 2009-  30 pianos will be distributed across Sydney for the Sydney Festival 2009.    

“Where words fail, music speaks” Hans Christian Anderson

Artist information

Luke Jerram is a UK based artist.  His other projects can be read about here www.lukejerram.com

Play Me , I’m Yours was first commissioned by www.fiercetv.co.uk 

Email from a stranger in Brazil….

First off I would like to thank you for bringing your project “Play Me, I’m Yours” to my city, São Paulo. You have no idea of the positive impact it has been causing in our community. Everyday I catch the subway at Estacao da Luz, where one of your pianos is located. This is a very busy hectic place, where most of the people  are coming from or going to work in a fast pace so typical of a megalopolis. It amazes me the power of the instrument, the magnetism that it generates among people. And I must say that 99% of the people who actually stop to check it out don’t have access to culture or are not used to have culture and beauty being brought to them.

I believe we have to take art out of its common venues and make it more public, more accessible. Besides bringing beauty and inspiration to people, your pianos ignite a reflexion on how we use the public space, how passive or active is our relationship with the space we share . I usually wait for a co worker right next to the piano, and as she is always late, I have the chance to observe people’s reactions. I’ve seen people walking by and coming back to listen to somebody play, I’ve seen people calling dear ones from their cell phones to share the music with them, I’ve seen an ice cream vendor crying after listening to a song, I’ve seen a couple dancing, I’ve seen 2 blind guys with the subway employee ( in charge of guiding them) sitting down and taking their time to appreciate the music, I’ve seen children in total ecstasy jumping around while an old man played a famous Vivaldi piece ( from a perfume ad here in Brazil).

This is the future. The democratization of art. The quality of the music is indifferent, the proposal of the installation is everything. Those beautiful pianos are self-esteem boosters for the everyday worker, who doesn’t have access to this kind of stuff not even on weekends.Pianos here are often are considered as “rich class” instruments, unlike the acoustic guitar or drums.
I can feel the respect they have for the instrument, I’ve seen people caressing it gently, admiring the keys, the shape, all its contours…

Thanks again! You brought slices of magic to us all!!!

Best Regards

Fabiana

About the project in Birmingham“We came to school and it was all broke, so we took all the things off and we’re taking ‘em into class and everyone’s decorating it,” says Basnick. “And then we started to paint all this and stuck everything on so it looks all nice.” Pupil from a school who had a piano. – that broke

I heard about this story on NPR today and looked this up, and I have to say - Luke, you are an inspiration. This is true art, in that it impacts people and engages their sense of creativity. This is alot better than plopping modern sculpture in parks all over town because it does inspire interaction. I loved hearing how the schoolchildren took to decorating the piano they came across. There is more than one way to express creativity with a piano, I guess (I’m an avid player). An ingenious idea and full credit to you, Luke, for an inspired thought brought to fruition.  Jon from Austin, TX  I would love to do this in Thailand. If only I could find enough pianos. I think it’s the nicest unusual new story for a long time. It’s good to see people caring about wanting people to play… very often when a pianist passes a pinao shop he sees them calling him… but you don’t always feel so welcome to sit and play. I like the piano shop in the film ‘Betty Blue’ The little boy prodigy that came in to practice because his parents hadn’t the money for a piano. We know about the pianists there are, and who they are. But we will never know who the great pianists were that never got to touch a piano in there lives. I’m sure there are some here in Thailand like this. I would so like to do this here… can anyone help?Posted by kim Plygeaw from Thailand   I spent an hour and a half outside  with the piano on most days. I’d say we
averaged at around 4 people per hour for the main part of the day (slightly
less in the mornings but usually making up numbers in the afternoon
especially school children going home with their parents or in groups. It
seemed to be a real hit and although a lot of people made scepictical
comments about the chances of the piano lasting the course, I can’t say
that I heard of any one abusing the piano during it’s stay. All in all I’d
say it was quite a hit with the locals.Michael. Erdington library What a wonderful idea!Though perhaps not under my window, please….Asha NPR Transcript March 20^th 2008.The streets of Birmingham, England, are sounding a more joyful note these days. Residents awoke recently to find pianos spray-painted with the words ‘Play me I’m yours’ scattered across the city. The public invitation to tickle the ivories is the work of an art collective whose organizers say they want to create a sense of unity and wonder in a place where both are in short supply. Luke Jerram, the artist who conceptualized the project, previously surprised residents with an orchestra suspended in hot-air balloons over Birmingham. On this particular morning, street musician Gordan Thomas pounds on a battered, paint-spattered upright piano, just outside the city’s rag market. He is accompanied by people on guitar and homemade drum. As the trio plays, hijab-wearing women walking arm in arm and young mothers with babies bundled up against the cold slow to take in the spectacle. Men working the nearby stalls, and others clearly not working at all, loiter in groups and listen and smile. At any given moment, 15 such scenes play out across the city. Kevin Isaacs, of Birmingham’s Fierce art collective, commissioned the piano project. ‘We’ve had kids of 14, 15 years of age from all communities making their own types of music,’ Isaacs says. ‘We’ve had people of 70, 80 years old playing old music-hall-type stuff - which is absolutely brilliant, that’s exactly what it’s about.’One of the pianos was installed at Frankey Community High School, and librarian Sue Baker says she is thrilled with the number of people who sit down and play.’It’s getting people talking who you wouldn’t normally talk to. And the people that you can’t imagine, play,’ Baker says.Outside the Allens Croft Primary School, fifth graders Simran Sahota, Robert Corcoran, Dailan Korta and Bethany Basnick crowd around one of the pianos. Since its arrival, it has been painted a dazzling pink and gray, and all the black keys have been covered in sequins, pom-poms, buttons and even pencil shavings.’We came to school and it was all broke, so we took all the things off and we’re taking ‘em into class and everyone’s decorating it,’ says Basnick. ‘And then we started to paint all this and stuck everything on so it looks all nice.’Corcoran notes that boys and girls have taken to the piano. ‘I think it’s fun. … In case we can’t play football or anything, we can come down here and play the piano,’ he says.Back at the rag market, Jason Konciw strikes some keys and shakes his head at the sound of the piano, which has suffered from sitting outside during a cold and wet month.’Oh, it’s a shame. I don’t like to see pianos like this, neglected,’ says Konciw, 37.Like so many others in Birmingham, he is unemployed. The city’s jobless rate is at least double the national average, and in some neighborhoods, one in three men has never had a job.’I’d love to work in a piano shop. … I’d do anything to work in a piano shop,’ Konciw says.A few feet away, 72-year-old Katie Killen sits bundled up in a beach chair, surrounded by brightly colored roses and chrysanthemums at a flower stall where she’s worked for 47 years. She says the music ‘cheers the place up. …We need cheering up.’    Edit