FILE – JFK Drive is seen in Golden Gate Park.
The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im
When Patricia Suflita Wilson received a text from a ranger in Golden Gate Park last Saturday morning, she expected the worst. The photos accompanying the message confirmed her suspicions: One of the public pianos she oversees in the park had been vandalized again. This time, it was the one in front of the Conservatory of Flowers, and it had been flipped over and broken into pieces, leaving both the instrument and its rain cover beyond repair.
“It’s demoralizing,” Wilson said. “It’s sad to see someone be so hateful and careless to something loved by so many.”
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Since the fall of 2022, when JFK Drive became permanently car-free, Wilson has been the director of the Golden Mile, a public art initiative spearheaded by Illuminate, in partnership with the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, to bring eye-catching and interactive installations to the promenade. Along with colorful Adirondack chairs, sprawling murals of whales and a sculpture of a bubble-blowing sea serpent, three open play pianos were stationed through the park: across from the Conservatory of Flowers, next to Blue Heron Lake and along the JFK promenade.
People gather to listen to a park visitor play one of the public pianos on JFK Drive.
Illuminate SF
Not long after the first piano was installed, Wilson remembers watching as a woman passed by, completely decked out in cycling gear. Noticing the instrument, the woman slammed on her brakes and with her helmet still on, raced over to sit at the bench and play. “It turns out she was a concert pianist,” Wilson said. “More and more people gathered, and she stayed and serenaded all of us. We see a lot of that beautiful spontaneity.”
A man started driving up from San Jose just to play one of the pianos. The trio of instruments began to spark weekly community music hangouts, impromptu concerts and a lively social media campaign as Wilson amassed a team of several volunteers to take care of them. According to data sourced by Illuminate and the recreation and parks department, attendance at Golden Gate Park has risen by 36% since the creation of the initiative the instruments were part of, leading to more than 10 million visitors, she said. “It’s become a real community gathering that’s so pure and so San Francisco,” she said.
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But the instruments didn’t last for long.
“They’re certainly well loved,” Wilson said. “Almost too well loved.”
Last week, the piano across from the Conservatory of Flowers was tipped over and smashed.
Illuminate SF
The Golden Mile’s pianos are up year-round, separate from the Botanical Garden’s annual Flower Piano tradition that just celebrated its 10-year anniversary and invites visitors to discover a dozen pianos throughout its 55 acres over the course of 10 days. On average, Wilson said, each Golden Mile piano has a shelf life of two to three months.
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Sometimes that’s because of vandalism. Three of the pianos were sprayed with graffiti — on one occasion, someone entirely stripped one of its keys. But the west side’s notorious fog and salty sea air have taken a toll, destroying eight others as Wilson determines through a trial-and-error process how to preserve the heavy, fragile instruments.
She went from using barbecue grill covers to a harder, custom-made material to shroud them at the end of the night. With the help of some of her volunteers, she installed a shed where the one across from the conservatory could be sheltered from rain and wind, but it also fell victim to last week’s vandalism after its doors were ripped off.
Graffiti covers one of the pianos.
Illuminate SF
“People call me from around the country, saying, ‘We want to do this,’ but it’s not as easy as it looks,” Wilson said. “We’re learning as we go. I installed my first piano four years ago, and I’m now on my twelfth.”
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Wilson said she sources most of the pianos through Craigslist or one-off donations, but the real cost comes from moving, tuning and retrofitting them so they can be safely played outside. One volunteer is responsible for painting each piano in a clear, protective coating while another focuses on reinforcing them so they can better withstand the elements. Between finding benches, installing safety reflectors for bicyclists, paying a piano tech and installing a lock, she estimates the loss of a piano sets her back around $5,000 each time.
Last week’s vandalism spurred her to take action toward a new goal: a $50,000 Crowdfundr campaign for a sturdier substitute. An outdoor piano designed for weather durability would eliminate the ongoing cycle of replacement instruments, while a Piano House 3.0 outfitted with a QR-code locking system and moisture-controlled interior would provide a shelter for each donated instrument, Wilson said. “We refuse to relent to vandals or the weather,” she wrote in the campaign.
Thousands of people have played the public pianos since the first was installed in 2022.
Illuminate SF
It’s not the first time a project linked to Illuminate has had to turn to fundraising to stay afloat. The arts nonprofit is behind several installations, including the Bay Lights, the naked, towering R-Evolution statue on the Embarcadero and the rainbow lasers that lit up Market Street during Pride last year. In January, Cjay Roughgarden, the artist behind Naga, the 100-foot-long sea serpent, described how the cost to maintain the Illuminate-sanctioned sculpture surged beyond her expectations, forcing her to pay thousands out of pocket to keep it above water.
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Golden Gate Park’s public pianos also aren’t the only ones that have been defaced. Last June, vandals targeted a community piano in Sunset Dunes Park, tearing away its keys and hinges just two days after the “Ocean Calling” phone booth was likewise destroyed. Both were subsequently replaced.
“It’s a shame because these public pianos bring so much joy to so many people,” Tamara Barak Aparton, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, told SFGATE in an email, expressing her hope for a replacement after last week’s vandalism. “This happens occasionally, and we don’t let one person spoil a good thing.”
The public pianos are part of the Golden Mile.
Illuminate SF
Wilson described the pianos as treasured by not only San Franciscans but visitors from around the world.
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“There’s an emotional response,” she said. “What started as a truly organic experiment has become one of the most beloved features of the park.”