Archives for May 2016

With help from the area’s schools and colleges, the Academy Center of the Arts is bringing music to the streets of Lynchburg.  As part of the Academy Center’s Community Outreach Initiative, the Hill City Keys program (formerly Keys for the Hill City) is entering its third year with nine pianos designed by the students of nine schools. The pianos will stick around downtown Lynchburg until the end of October. The idea of placing lavishly painted pianos around city streets started in London and has spread to cities around the world and the United States. Libby Fitzgerald, who started Hill City Keys, came across the vividly adorned pianos when visiting Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “In Lancaster, the pianos were all painted by professional artists but when I returned to Lynchburg, I got the idea of using high school students to do ours,” Fitzgerald said. “My thought was that giving them an opportunity to make a civic contribution and to create school pride and for their school communities to be able to get involved would be such a positive thing. And it has proven to be.” Starting this year, Libby Fitzgerald also started reaching out to middle schools in addition to high schools and […]