May 2, 2024 - Things to Do

Art Snack: Bonnie Meltzer's Burned Piano

Joseph Gallivan

woman in front of a burned piano — Fabric artist Bonnie Meltzer and the Burned Piano Project at the Oregon Jewish Museum. Photo: Joseph Gallivan/Axios

Artist Bonnie Meltzer and musician Jennifer Wright salvaged a burned Steinway piano for art's sake — and the sake of healing.

Flashback: The catalyst for the exhibit, according to Meltzer and Wright, was the suspected arson of a family's home, which also served as a Jewish organization's mailing address. The family escaped but their grandmother's baby grand piano was burned in the fire, Meltzer said.

Axios could not find a news account of the home fire.

Zoom in: Meltzer and dozens of volunteers crocheted and wove the recovered copper and steel piano strings into a tapestry depicting the sun rising over a black landscape.

Wright took some of the keys and made a new piano, where the hammers hit glass rods instead of strings — now on display at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.

Zoom out: Meltzer is a textile and social practice artist who invites volunteers to help with the handicrafts.

She follows the 2,000-year-old saying of Rabbi Tarfon, about the work of mending the social fabric: "It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it."

If you go: "The Burned Piano Project: Creating Music Amidst the Noise of Hate" is open through the end of June, including guided tours and concerts.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to remove a reference to a series of arsons in connection to the fire that resulted in the burned piano.

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Art Snack: Bonnie Meltzer's Burned Piano

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