Interactive painted pianos will be scattered around Trenton as art pieces in a community art project organized by Emily Smith, owner of a music studio called Keys to Your Dream, LLC. The project is aiming to go public around August or September. Seven pianos have been donated to the project and all will be painted by volunteers within the Trenton community, such as artists from State Street Coffee and people associated with Barn-n-Bunk. Keys to Your Dream, LLC, is a music studio that holds lessons for people of all ages with a wide range of instruments.

Emily, the owner, proposed the project idea and is working on it every step of the way. “Trenton will be divided into 7 sections and we’ll put a piano in each of these spaces, to ensure that all citizens have access to one to interact with,” said Smith. All pianos will be playable, and some will be interactive in other ways. For instance, one piano will be covered in chalkboard paint so people passing by can decorate the piano using chalk.  “I wanted the art pieces to be interactive mainly to inspire creativity in the community,” she said. Smith got the inspiration for this project from a variety of places. “My main inspiration came when I went to a piano show in Cleveland,” she states. Another inspiration for this project was public art closer to home, such as the modern art sculptures artists have made that are still displayed in Hamilton, Ohio today. “Hamilton has the statues, but Trenton has never really had anything like an art exhibition,” says Smith. There have been a few concerns with the project, one of them being the possibility of vandalism when the pianos are made public. “We are hoping that since the pianos will be interactive people will interact with it the ways that are intended instead,” Smith stated. She hopes that this project will bring joy and inspiration to everyone in the Trenton community. “This project is not targeting any one group, just anybody who lives in Trenton,” says Smith.