The keys to Rome
New project brings five colorful pianos to downtown locations for the public to enjoy; launches May 6
A new project bringing five colorful pianos to downtown locations will launch May 6.
Starting May 6, five vibrantly decorated pianos will be placed at various locations downtown for Rome residents to enjoy — either to listen to music being played on them, to see the colorful artwork decorating them or to actually play the piano themselves.
The pianos will be downtown as part of a new project called the Keys to Rome.
“It’s a partnership between the city, the Georgia’s Rome tourism office and a local organization called Turn Your Back on Hate,” said Kristi Kent, director of communications for the city’s office of tourism.
The five pianos were donated by Rome residents Anne White, Ruth Cain, Susan Babcock and Robert Brown and each has been decorated or painted by a local artist or group. Each will put his or her own unique flair on the pianos. Artists James Schroeder and Siri Selle, Broad Street art store Swerve and local groups the Rome Knitterati and Turn Your Back on Hate are all responsible for making the pianos look vibrant and colorful before they’re placed at various downtown locations.
“Turn Your Back on Hate has been instrumental in getting this project going,” Kent said. “And Makervillage has been generous enough to offer us the use of their space for the artists to paint all the pianos except Swerve’s. They’re using their own studio space. The pianos will be placed in the town green, Makervillage, the corner of Towers Plaza, on the Cotton Block in front of Riverdog Paddle and the corner of Fourth and Broad,” Kent said.
The colorful and functioning pianos will be left at the five locations and businesses close to those locations will cover and uncover them daily (and when it rains). Kent said the project’s organizers will be promoting pop-up concerts at which musicians will be playing the pianos in 15-minute concerts so the public can enjoy the music. Everyone is encouraged to play the pianos and have their photos taken at the pianos.
“We hope people will share their photos and videos on social media with the hashtag
#keystorome,” she said. Jeremy Harrison has been instrumental in the project’s development.
“It’s been such a fun project, and it’s pretty amazing how people just kinda showed up at the right place and the right time to help the process flow as smoothly as it has,” he said.
And there’s another fun element to the project. Jessie Reed of Turn Your Back on Hate said there’s a scavenger hunt portion to the piano project as well.
“Game cars can be picked up at the tourism center and downtown businesses,” she said. “We have hidden a word somewhere on each piano. After visiting each piano and collecting all five words, you can unscramble the sentence and solve the puzzle. Return your completed postcard to any Rome Visitor Center for a prize. Those locations are downtown (adjacent to the Town Green); 300 W. First Street; and The Rome-Floyd location at 402 Civic Center Drive.”
On May 6, the day the project is launched, piano students of all ages will be performing on the piano at the Town Green. Students of the Rome Piano Teachers Association will be playing that piano throughout the day.
“This is just a cool public art project,” Kent said. “It exposes people to a different form of art that they might not otherwise experience. It’s visual since the pianos are painted and decorated and there’s also the musical element.”