A new project in Belleville starts off on the right note

By Aynslee Darmon

BELLEVILLE – Belleville residents shouldn’t be surprised if they start seeing pianos outdoors around the city.

With inspiration from British artist Luke Jerram, founder of Play Me, I’m Yours, some residents in Belleville are joining a movement to bring the public together by placing pianos around cities for people to play.

The project is called the Paint it, Place it and Play it Piano Project. 

Gary Magwood, the Belleville Downtown DocFest chair, said he is excited to add Belleville’s name to a list of over 50 cities worldwide to have pianos put in public places.

“We are just starting to kind of put out the word that we would like to get this project underway. We have some pianos that have been donated,” he said.

Magwood said the city has four pianos ready for the project but all he needs now is for the pianos to be painted by a local artist.

“There is an organization in Belleville called Artists Below the Line and they are all painters and jewelry makers and we are going to put it out to them to see who would like to paint the pianos,” he said.

Magwood is organizing some fundraisers to help support the project.

Hippy Hippy Shake Dance Party on Feb. 6 will be the first of  monthly fundraising dances to be held at the Belleville Club.

Magwood told QNet News he hopes the pianos will be set up before the warm weather hits this spring.

Cities like Cobourg, Toronto and Stratford have all participated in this project. In Cobourg, a video of a piece played by Michael McNamara on a piano called Foxgang Amadeus went viral.