Arts & Entertainment

There's a Golden Piano on Centre Street Waiting to Be Played by You

Stop by the golden piano at Theodore Parker Church and tickle the ivories for yourself.


No, you weren't imagining things when you drove by the Theodore Parker Church and saw a golden piano waiting for you to sit down and play it!

From Sept. 27 to Oct. 14, Celebrity Series of Boston is hosting "Play Me, I'm Yours" - a project of donated old pianos redesigned by selected artists to decorate them. 
Jamaica Plain's Liz O'Brien, 24, was selected to design a piano, hers is called "A Bicycle Built for Tunes" and is outside the Theodore Parker Church at the corner of Center and Corey streets. Anyone is welcome to play it. There will be organized playing times, too. In case of increment weather, church officials will pull a tarp over the piano. 

O'Brien's piano is just one of many across the city. 

"I've been eager to work on an interactive public art project since the Cow Parade visited Boston in 2007. At that time, I was finishing my AP Studio Art portfolio at Boston Latin School. My portfolio concentration was the Value of Urban Open Spaces," said O'Brien, to Patch.  

"I design a line of greeting cards called 'Recycled Regrets'. Each card is a collage of recycled items such as past event invitations, news clips, sea glass, old pedometers... the options are endless," said O'Brien.

Find out what's happening in West Roxburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Check out O'Brien's cards for sale here etsy.com/shop/loopholesbyliz.

"It’s recycling themed so I used a small child’s bike to spell out Boston with the wheels being O’s, I wanted to keep the piano Boston-themed," said O'Brien.    

Find out what's happening in West Roxburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

And for O'Brien, who has a lot of family in Westie, the art project is something she can share with her grandmother, Patricia O'Brien, from West Roxbury.

"I spent a lot time there, growing up, walking up and down Centre Street, I'm really excited that I could bring something over to West Roxbury after all the good memories I've had there," said O'Brien.

 


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