Painted Pianos culminate with an Emilee Rose photo shoot + a Richard Vergez performance
For those of you that follow us, you’ve heard a thing or two about FTL Play Your City over the past 3 months. Five donated pianos were re-purposed by local artists and demonstrated a low-cost way to instantly activate public spaces and ultimately improve the livability of the city. This collaboration between the City of Fort Lauderdale, Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale and Cadence showed the power of connecting the right organizations and putting opportunities for creativity to happen in the community’s hands. Watching how the public interacts with art took our team and the artist on quite a ride – countless impromtu performances emerged, a missing piano caper ensued, and a Dania Beach family was inspired to donate their piano for a live painting by Luzalma Gonzalez that took place during Revel on the Block.
We get involved with projects like this with a goal to promote a sense of community and the hope to inspire creativity in others. A FTL Play Your City piano was outside our office for three months; it was common to have someone walk by, stop for a moment and play a tune. During a recent work day, Rick, a musician from My Electric Heart and Emilee, a photographer, stumbled upon our piano. They read about the painted piano projects in other cities and were ecstatic to learn Fort Lauderdale now had a piano project of its own. They hit the streets to entertain with their first stop being Brian Buzzella’s “88” piano parked in front of Cadence. An introduction between us and Rick and Emilee transpired – thanks to the piano.
When news of Revel on the Block hit the media outlets, Emilee contacted us and knew she wanted to do a photo shoot in connection with Revel to pay homage to the painted pianos. So on a hot July evening in FATVillage Art District, Emilee gathered her team alongside the pianos and began. Organized and professional, the shoot went smoothly, capturing the images and essence of the moment. Music is Emilee’s choice for stirring her creativity. She used the song Mariana’s Trench “Ever After” to inspire her photo’s composition.
A simple idea, over a three month period, brought together members of a community with varying backgrounds; filtering melodic sounds through our downtown streets.
Emilee’s photo concept and original FTL Play Your City artist, Richard Vergez’s final installment of “Piano Player” could not have been more poignant in closing this public art effort. Richard, Emilee, and all of you who engaged with this project, thank you for reminding us just why doing creative community projects like this matter.
