World’s longest piano visits the Tron

Although it was not Media Arts team leader  Cate Prestidge’s  idea to bring the world’s longest piano to Hamilton, her twitter account certainly got things moving.

Prestidge has built many relationships within the creative industry, including with the piano’s creator, Adrian Mann, who she knows personally.

“Adrian had the option of having the piano in Auckland for a month and it was with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and KBB music so it was going to be up there anyway,” Prestidge said.

While chatting with her mother, Jan Prestidge,  she was asked if the piano “could just pop into” Hamilton for a while.

So Prestidge posted on twitter, asking who in Hamilton could host the world’s longest piano.

Responses came from the Waikato Museum along with Creative Waikato, and a meeting was held to discuss placement during which it was discovered  the piano would not fit in the museum’s already large elevator.

It was then decided the piano would be held in Creative Waikato’s space.

“It wasn’t really my idea but when they asked, I thought, I’m sure we can find a way, so we did it,” Prestidge said.

After hearing about the Creative Community Scheme, she put together an application that was able to get Mann funding  to pay for the transport of the piano from Auckland, and to help with Mann’s expenses to run events.

Prestidge believes the piano’s visit was successful  for many reasons.

She said part of the philosophy was for the event to be totally free.

From Creative Waikato’s perspective, the time the piano spent here helped people find the organisation, and learn a little about what they do.

“It really enhanced the pop-up street piano project because it had the big piano that anyone could play,

“It also showcased Adrian’s work, building it and telling his story, which is kind of a cool kiwi story,” Prestidge said.

In terms of measurables, Prestidge believes more than  500 people came to view the piano in the two weeks.

“Adrian’s really happy and he got such a warm welcome in Hamilton, he really loved it.

“They came home every night to our place going ‘oh, that was just great’,” Prestidge said.

However, Prestidge also believes more time spent in Hamilton would have made it more successful.

“There was quite a lot of momentum built, particularly in the second week and over the weekend. The first week we were building interest, the second week was really busy, and then a third week would have consolidated,” she said.

Now that the piano has left Hamilton, Prestidge wants to continue supporting artistic endeavours in the city.

“We’ve deliberately placed our Fashion and Interior Design, and Painting and Sculpture premises in the city to help re-energise the middle of Hamilton,” she said.

“We are banging around ideas, as a creative arts school, we can support stuff that is already happening,” she said.

Prestidge hopes to continue working with organisations to get artistic and interesting activity happening in the city.