Play Me, I'm Yours!

Sal and I don't play the piano, but we love music, so on Friday afternoon we hit the road to take photos of 25 specially painted pianos that have been placed around Cleveland.  This was our only chance to see them, because this public art project -- called Play Me, I'm Yours -- is almost over.  We were intrigued by the concept of pianos sitting outside 24/7 for anybody to play.  The Play Me, I'm Yours website states:  "Touring internationally since 2008, ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ is an artwork by artist Luke Jerram.   More than 700 pianos have now been installed in 38 cities across the globe, from New York to Cleveland, bearing the simple invitation Play Me, I'm Yours.  The project has reached more than two million people worldwide ... The idea is to encourage people to meet, connect, communicate, and express themselves through the shared experience of musical performance."  Sounds awesome, don't you think!?  A must-do photo op for my adorable pocket uke, who, I must say, is pretty good at meeting people and encouraging them to connect and communicate!

Sal and I have a friend who enjoys picture-taking, too, so she came along for the ride (and to take her own, Sal-less photos).  On Friday we met for lunch and hit the road.  We decided to proceed methodically -- starting with the pianos closest to the west side (where we live) and moving east.  In the course of the afternoon, we found and photographed 21 of the 25 pianos.  Because of time pressures we were unable to get to the others, but don't despair.  The story has a happy ending!

Our first piano!  In front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Outside the Rainey Institute.

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A Zentangled piano at the Cleveland Clinic, near East 96th Street.

Yay!  University Circle contained some pianos within walking distance of each other!

In the gorgeous atrium at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

In front of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

In front of the Cleveland Botanical Gardens.  This lady, Keiko Sato, was playing beautiful music on this piano!  She was visiting from Canton -- attending an event at the Cleveland International Piano Competition.

Back in the car to drive around a bit.  If we'd had more time, we could have walked to more of the pianos, but such is life.

In front of the Western Reserve Historical Society.

The next piano was almost the scene of a disaster!  I was taking photos and walked away for a moment to ask my friend, who was waiting in the car, a question.  I ended up getting in the car and driving away -- leaving Sal on the piano!  When we reached our next stop, I looked in Sal's case and saw that it was empty.  A sickening realization hit me.  I had unthinkingly walked away and left Sal unattended!  Anybody might have come by and taken her!  By now several minutes had already passed because we had experienced some difficulties finding the next piano on the twisty streets of the area.  In a panic, we rushed back and found that Sal was still where I had placed her.  You can imagine my relief!  I was so overcome I could have cried.

This could have been the last photo ever taken of Sal!  The location of this piano was Case Western Reserve University Village at 115. 

After that brief (thank goodness) panic, we hit the mother lode!  Ten pianos pretty close together -- all within a couple blocks of The Museum of Contemporary Art.  We walked around and saw the next bunch of them in a fairly short time.

This piano was being played by Theodor Watson -- stage name Teddy Ted.  He is a dancer, singer, etc. 

These ladies were having fun playing this piano, and agreed to pose for a photo with Sal.

Gotta love this one because it was in front of one of my favorite restaurants!  Chipotle!

The only reason I am posting this picture is because all of the pianos should be included.  The late afternoon sun was blazing on the front of this piano, which was in front of the equally black and reflective MOCA building.  Not a good photographic lighting situation!  This is the best shot I got.  :(

We almost missed this one.  It was tucked in the corner of ABC the Tavern's outdoor space.

Back in the car to catch a few more...

In front of University Hospitals.

In front of Severance Hall.

In front of the Cleveland Music School Settlement

We were out of time at this point, so we had to give up with only four more pianos to go!  Argh!  Wiser people might have said that enough is enough.  But we are not wiser people...  The rest of these photos were taken Sunday morning.

We couldn't find this piano on Friday afternoon, so I called the Kelvin Smith Library to ask about it.  I was assured that the piano was to the right of the main entrance doors.  We had been standing in front of those doors on Friday, but didn't see the piano.  (The library was already closed when we arrived, so we couldn't ask about it.)  Sure enough, when we walked around to the other side of the entrance on Sunday morning, there it was.

In front of the Case Western Reserve University Art Studio.

This is the piano Teddy Ted was playing on Friday, but we decided to stop and get a shot of the very interesting paint job, which was not visible while it was being played.  My friend and I thought this would have been a good piano to put in front of one of the hospitals!

We were very confused when trying to find this piano, because the map indicated that the piano was at the Cleveland International Piano Competition, but we located it at a home for seniors.

Outside Heights Arts.  Our final piano.  We found them all!

I think we all had a sense of accomplishment at this point.  We had found all the pianos and taken pictures of Sal with each one.  Unfortunately, there are several major projects in my house and yard that I could/should have been doing instead.  The question remains:  should I be taking time off from these projects to do things like this with Sal?  I'm pretty sure the answer is YES!  There will always be work to do, life is short, etc. 

And fortunately -- or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it -- while going around taking these pictures, I got ideas for more places Sal and I can go...