Leadership students put pianos in community

It’s not every day that you see a piano sitting outside of a business waiting to be played. But through Nov. 1, you can find them at three locations in Mountain Brook.

That’s thanks to the efforts of three students in the 2018-19 Leadership Mountain Brook class: Ann Inskeep, Megan Summrall and Ella Lukens. They spearheaded a project that resulted in the placement of pianos in front of stores in Crestline, English and Mountain Brook villages.

“There’s so much creativity in our community, and there’s just no way to display it,” said Inskeep, a Mountain Brook High School senior. “And I wanted to have that effect.”

In late August, Inskeep and fellow senior Summrall capped a project that began last January when they delivered the pianos to their destinations.

They now reside outside of Miss Dots and Smith’s Variety in Crestline Village, Little Hardware in English Village and Vitola Fine Cigars in Mountain Brook Village.

The pianos feature different designs and are painted in green, gold, gray and white.

“Our hope is that people will sit down and play and just enjoy the fall weather, if it will ever get here,” said Amber Benson, who teaches the Leadership Mountain Brook class.

Benson lauded the patience and perseverance that her pupils have demonstrated. While Leadership students are tasked with overseeing a project that improves the city, few take on projects as intricate as this one.

“I was just so proud of them,” Benson said. “There’s so many hoops to jump through with a project like this.”

Inskeep said her group’s original project fell through, leaving her and her classmates at a standstill in the middle of the school year. But Will Mason, owner of Mason Music, pitched an idea to them about placing pianos outside of local businesses.

“Performance is usually predictable, scheduled, planned, controlled,” Mason said in an email. “With these outdoor pianos, it’s completely spontaneous, random, unscripted, and there’s something really cool about that."

Inskeep said she initially thought placing the pianos around the community would be a small side project, but it turned into a “big production.”

It entailed collecting three donated pianos, presenting the idea to the Mountain Brook City Council and Village Design Review Committee, identifying businesses that would allow pianos to be placed on their property and navigating complex insurance issues.

The students’ goal was to finish the project before the 2018-19 school year came to a close. But with no end in sight by the time exams rolled around in May, they put it on pause.

They lost a group member, Lukens, to graduation as a result.

The loss, however, didn’t stop Inskeep and Summrall from seeing the project through to completion. They continued to work with the city, businesses and Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce over the summer.

In late July, Inskeep said she finished painting the pianos with the help of her friends. They then placed the pianos, which had been sitting in Inskeep’s garage, in August.

“I could not have done that without my friends,” Inskeep said. “It was definitely not a two-person job.”

The pianos will reside in their new homes through the end of October, but Inskeep said they could be removed sooner if they are vandalized or begin to rot.

Although the pianos’ presence will be shortlived, Inskeep said the project was worth the effort.

“It’s been fun seeing the reaction people have had to it,” she said.