This summer, Avani spent five weeks at the Medill-Northwestern Journalism Institute where she wrote this piece and others and learned the intricacies of journalism. 

Alongside the regular sounds of children splashing and the chattering of friends meeting for coffee, the melody of “Seasons of Love” filled Fountain Square as a teenage girl played a piano painted from top to bottom with multicolored flowers. 

Downtown Evanston, a local nonprofit, works to improve Evanston’s economy and living standards. The organization moved a piano to Evanston’s square about two weeks ago, after commissioning artist Amanda Evanston Freund to paint it.

“It’s a placemaking element of the square,” Laura Brown, the Business Development and Marketing Manager at Downtown Evanston, said. “It’s unique and fun. We want to brighten people’s day when they see a beautifully painted piano when they’re going out to work or going to an appointment or going out to dinner.” 

Downtown Evanston had a piano sitting in their office space for over a year, and when Brown and her colleagues observed public pianos in other towns and cities throughout the United States and wanted to bring the idea to life here, they found a use for it. 

Their inspiration came from “Play Me, I’m Yours,” an organization created in 2008 by Luke Jerram, which stations pianos in public places. Jerram placed 15 pianos across Birmingham, UK in three weeks and since then, organizations and individuals have put more than 1,900 street pianos in over 60 cities across the globe, now including Evanston.

After realizing they wanted to move the piano to the square, Downtown Evanston pitched the idea to the City of Evanston Arts Council, which works to integrate art into public spaces and help coordinate cultural activities.

“We’re really looking for how proposals will enhance the art in Evanston,” Assistant to the City Manager Paula Martinez said. “We like to connect art and community, and make as much art public as possible.” 

Downtown Evanston gave a five-minute presentation to the Council explaining their idea, the purpose of the money, and the importance of the project. Afterward, the Council funded 50 percent of their project. 

“We really give priority to projects that reflect diversity, equity and inclusion,” Martinez said. “This request capitalized on equity. It’s public art access.”

Martinez said Downtown Evanston’s pitch was impressive because they had a plan for everything. “We always pay attention to maintenance, cold weather, storms, what if it breaks, and they had a plan for all of that,” she said. 

The organization bought the instrument officially and began their project on May 29. It took only two weeks for the piano to be fully painted and rehabilitated for public use. 

The money the Council gave to Downtown Evanston commissioned Freund to paint the piece. Freund said she has a special affinity for flowers and nature, so she chose them for the design. 

Freund considers herself to be an Evanston-based “painter, maker, artist and designer” and sells her work both at her studio on Chicago Avenue and online. Downtown Evanston wanted a local artist to decorate the piano to reinforce community values, Brown said. 

The piano brings the latest change in Fountain Square’s recent makeover. Downtown Evanston now hosts free live concerts and children’s readings in the space, and Brown said she hopes the piano brings a new level of excitement to those events.  

“I was there for the storytime event, and a teenager just stopped and uncovered the piano from under its weather cover and just started to play,” Brown said. “He was playing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ and other songs that were just so positive and uplifting, and he drew a little crowd.” 

Moments like these remind her of the power of music and of the piano itself to bring communities together, Brown said.