The bottom floor of 499 North Canon Drive has been transformed into an unconventional art gallery. The room is filled with upright pianos, each one with a dedicated artist transforming the musical instruments into unique visual statements. Once finished, the pianos will leave the gallery space and join pedestrians on the streets of Beverly Hills, and will then make their way to disadvantaged schools, hospitals, and communities around Los Angeles. The project is a partnership between the New York-based nonprofit Sing for Hope, the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts and the city of Beverly Hills.
The Courier obtained an early preview, sitting down with artist Chaz Guest as he began painting a piano with his comic book character Buffalo Warrior, the first superhero “born in the cotton fields.” Guest explained that he got involved with Sing for Hope when he learned that the pianos would be given to under-resourced schools like those he attended in inner-city Philadelphia. He hopes that students see themselves and their potential reflected back at them in the fierce image of the Buffalo Warrior. “That’s going to start to teach them about their true narrative,” he said.
