The piano under the bridge – ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’
If I had a calendar and counted down with big red crosses to something, it wouldn’t be Christmas or the next holiday, it would be the Cambridge Festival of Ideas. This year it kicked off with something beautiful – pianos – fifteen of them dotted all around Cambridge. The first one I noticed was under Elizabeth Way bridge with ‘Play Me’ painted on it but you can find them all over the city.
This installation art:‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ has been touring cities since 2008 and is the brainchild of artist Luke Jerram.
In Cambridge it is supported by and will go on for two weeks. The pianos, originally destined for landfill, have all been decorated by local artists and been re-tuned for free by David Lock.
I have to say it’s simply wonderful – this is the sort of initiative that makes you think about how limited we are in our ideas of how to structure city life. I am dreaming of a day where pianos become permanent street furniture.
Too much utopia for some people? One of them was almost stolen on the first night but luckily the rest sit around the city under waterproof sheets and despite the rain people stop to play and even better they stop to talk.