Community piano

Cochranites will soon be able to stop and tickle the ivories while strolling down First Street.

The town’s temporary street piano will be unveiled Aug. 7 outside the Home Quarter Mercantile and Pie Shop.

The project was launched by Cochranite and Mount Royal University criminal justice student Valerie Cheadle, as well as her classmate Danielle Sieger and professor Nikki Filipuzzi.

Cheadle and Sieger, who begin their fourth year of the program in the fall, attended a presentation by Steve Woolrich who introduced the first street piano in Canada in Red Deer last year with great success.

“We went (to Red Deer) and saw it . . . and were inspired by it,” Cheadle said.

“Right then and there we decided to do it.”

The idea of the street piano incorporates crime prevention through environmental design as well as strengthening community bonds.

Cheadle and Sieger found a free piano on Kijiji, then looked for an artist who was interested in helping paint it along with members of the Cochrane’s Boys and Girls Club.

That artist was Jan Armstrong of Just Imajan Art Gallery.

Kids from the Cochrane Boys and Girls Club help Just Imajan owner Janet Armstrong, right, to paint piano. Photo by Rachel Maclean

“I love doing different stuff . . . unique stuff,” Armstrong said July 22 while overseeing some of the boys’ and girls’ painting progress at the gallery.

“(The kids) are doing great.”

“It’s really fun because I never get to paint a piano,” said 10-year-old Lorena Anderson, who was helping Cory Rogans, also 10, paint a trout on the instrument July 29.

“I think it’s a great idea,” added 11-year-old Alysa Hauck who was busy painting flowers on a meadow scene on the piano.

The unveiling ceremony, taking place from 1-4 p.m., will include a Home Quarter cake and face painting.

Woolrich will also be on hand to give a talk about street pianos while Red Deer’s Randi Boulton, a fan of the project, will perform.

Nostalgia Saddle Co. of Cochrane is also donating a seat, in the form of a 100-plus year old saddle, as a spot for people to sit and listen to tunes.

The piano and saddle will sit on the Home Quarter porch until the end of September, weather permitting, to be played by any interested passerby.

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