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Turning the Public into Performers with “Street Pianos”
Prepared by: Meara Heubach
Institution: CES Inspección de Inglés / Fulbright ETA
Date: October 6, 2010
Grade Level: Intermediate
Duration: 60+ minutes
DESCRIPTION
The Street Pianos Project is a participatory art project that has placed colorfully painted
pianos in public spaces throughout nine different world cities. The idea of the project is to
encourage people to interact with one another, with the pianos serving as catalysts for
these interactions. In this lesson, students will learn about the project by listening to a
news story from a radio broadcast. The lesson’s pre- and post-listening activities ask
students to think about their usual interactions with strangers and to consider whether or
not a similar project could be successful in Uruguay. The final activity asks students to
design their own participatory art project that, like the Street Pianos Project, would
encourage interaction among strangers.
GOALS
• to expose students to international current events
• to have students examine their daily interactions with people they don't know
• to have students design their own public art projects that encourage interaction
among strangers
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing this lesson, students will be able to:
• Answer true-or-false and multiple-choice questions about the Street Pianos Project
• Write full-sentence answers to the following questions about the Project:
- What is the Street Pianos Project?
- Where are the pianos?
- Who plays the pianos?
- Why are the pianos called street pianos?
- Who thought of the project?
- How did the artist get the idea for the project?
- When the project ends, what will happen to the pianos?
• Say whether or not they think the Project is interesting, whether or not they would
play one of the pianos if they saw one of them in New York City, and whether or
not people in their town would play the pianos if there was a Street Pianos Project
there.
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• Write a 2-3 paragraph-long proposal for a participatory art project in their town
that would encourage strangers to interact with one another
• Give a five-minute group presentation describing their art project
VOCABULARY
These words are in the audio clip of the news story. It might be helpful to review them
before beginning the listening activities.
VERBS NOUNS ADJECTIVES
engage catalyst odd
improvise Laundromat participatory
sheet music visual
urge
MATERIALS
“Piano” photograph by Luke Jerram
“Find Someone Who” questionnaire
“Turning the Public Into Performers with ‘Street Pianos’” audio clip, available at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128029071
“Turning the Public Into Performers with ‘Street Pianos’” transcript
“Listening Activities” worksheet
DIRECTIONS
Note: I have created many activities for this lesson so that teachers can choose the ones
that seem most appropriate for their classes. Doing all the activities would surely last more
than one class period, therefore please choose the ones that best fit your classroom’s
environment.
Pre-listening Activities
1. Write the following questions on the board:
• Do you play a musical instrument? Why or why not?
• Do you like to listen to live music? What is your favorite kind of music to hear live?
• Do you ever talk to strangers? In which situations do you need to talk to strangers?
Ask students to write answers to these questions in their notebooks.
2. Show students a picture of someone playing a piano in New York City [“Piano”
photograph]. Ask them the following questions about the picture, and have them
answer orally.
• Who do you see in the picture?
• What are they doing?
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• Where was the picture taken? (ANSWER: Times Square in New York City)
• Why do you think the woman is playing the piano?
• Why do you think the piano is in the street?
• Why do you think the piano says “Play Me, I’m Yours”?
3. “Find Someone Who...”
a. Tell students that they are going to do a get-to-know-you activity. Tell them that you
are going to give them a piece of paper with questions on it and that they have to find
classmates who can answer the questions. Once they find a classmate that can answer
one of the questions, they will write down the classmate’s name on the line next to the
question.
b. Before starting with the activity, the students need to practice turning the question
prompts on the handout into real questions. To do this, write the first prompt from the
questionnaire on the board: “Find someone who talks to people in elevators.” Ask the
students what they would do if they wanted to find someone who talks to people in
elevators. Once the students have suggested that you could ask, “Do you talk to
people in elevators?,” hand out copies of the “Find Someone Who” questionnaire. Ask
the students to change one more prompt from the questionnaire into a question.
Following this, ask the students to stand up and begin asking each other the questions.
c. Walk around the class to be sure that students are asking the questions and not just
showing them to each other.
Listening Activities
4. Tell students that they are going to listen to a radio program about the piano in the
picture. Tell them that they will listen to the radio program three times and that each time
they will answer a different set of questions. Hand out the “Listening Activities” worksheet,
ask students to read over the questions for Part A, and play the audio clip once. Note: The
story begins at 0:22. After playing the clip, check the answers for Part A. Play the audio
clip two more times. Check the answers to Part B after the second listening and to Part C
after the third listening. It may help to have the worksheet folded into thirds so that
students aren’t distracted by the other questions.
ANSWERS to Part A ANSWERS to Part B ANSWERS to Part C
1. (c) 60 1. FALSE 1. (b) for anyone to play
2. (a) Laundromat 2. TRUE 2. (a) parks and sidewalks
3. (b) street performers 3. TRUE 3. (c) some people are shy
4. (c) be given to schools 4. FALSE 4. (c) act as a catalyst for
and hospitals 5. FALSE conversation
5. (a) the mayor of New 6. FALSE 5. (b) wasn’t impressed by the
York City 7. TRUE Japanese students’ talent
8. FALSE
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Post-listening Activities
5. Dictation
a. Dictate the comprehension-checking questions below to the students. Have them
write the questions in their notebooks and ask them to leave space for the answers.
• What is the Street Pianos Project?
• Where are the pianos?
• Who plays the pianos?
• Why are the pianos called street pianos?
• Who thought of the project?
• How did the artist get the idea for the project?
• When the project ends, what will happen to the pianos?
b. Ask students to work in groups to answer the questions. You can use the numbers on
top of the “Find Someone Who” questionnaire to help divide the students into groups.
Students can use the “Listening Activities” worksheet to help answer the questions, but
each student needs to write down the answers in his or her notebook.
c. Once the students have finished answering the questions, check the answers orally as
a group.
6. Discussion
Ask the opinion questions below to the students and have them answer orally. Feel free to
modify the questions or add additional ones that you think might engage your students
more.
• Do you think the Street Pianos Project is interesting? Why or why not?
• If you were in New York City and saw one of the pianos, would you play it? Why
or why not?
• If there was a Street Pianos Project in (STUDENTS’ TOWN), do you think people
would play the pianos?
You can organize this discussion in several ways.
Option 1: Have the students show their answers by raising their hands, then ask
individual students to expand upon their answers orally.
Option 2: Write the questions on the board and tell the students that they are going to
discuss these questions in partners. Divide the groups that the students are already in
into pairs, or have the students divide into pairs. As the students discuss the questions,
walk around and listen to what the students are discussing.
Option 3: Stage a debate about the Project. Divide the students into two groups. Have
one group argue that the Street Pianos Project could be successful in Uruguay, and
have the other group argue that the project could not be successful in Uruguay. Give
the students time to come up with supporting arguments and counterarguments, then
give them a fixed amount of time to hold the debate.
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7. Design your own project
a. Tell students that they are going to design their own participatory art project for their
town and that they will present it to the class. Like the Street Pianos Project, the aim of
this project will be to encourage people to interact and engage with each other. Tell
students that they need to think of a way to get people in their town who usually do not
interact with each other to engage with one another. Tell them that their projects can be
very similar to the Street Pianos Project or very different and that in groups they will
write a 2-3 paragraph-long proposal for their project that addresses the following points:
• title of the project
• where the project will be installed
• what objects people will use to interact with each other
• how long the project will last
• how the project will be promoted
b. Have students divide into small groups (3-5 students). Give them 15-20 minutes to
write their proposals. At the same time, some students can begin to draw a picture of
what their installation will look like, since this will be part of their presentation.
c. In the next class, have each group present their project. Give each group five
minutes. Have students address the points on their proposals and present a picture or
some other visual representation of their project.
RESOURCES FOR FURTHER ENRICHMENT
“Turning the Public into Performers with ´Street Pianos´”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128029071
Includes the link to the audio clip of the news story, a summary of the story, and a picture
of someone playing one of the pianos.
Website for the Street Pianos Project (Play Me, I'm Yours)
http://www.streetpianos.com/nyc2010/
Includes pictures and videos of people playing the pianos, maps of where the pianos were
placed in the cities, and comments written by people who participated in the project.
