Two more pianos are to echo throughout the Western Bay thanks to The Incubator community art project space, which has been getting artists to decorate six musical instruments.

Artists Wendy Pederson, and Rosey Armstrong with daughter Naomi LeNoel, 5, paint and play the street pianos.

Katikati and Pilot Bay will each receive a painted piano, following three placed in Tauranga City – one outside Creative Tauranga on Willow St, another on The Strand and a third on Grey St. The last piano will remain at The Incubator.

'Because Katikati is so proud of their art and artists out there – and they knew what we were doing with the pianos – the town's promotions manager has decided to take one,” say The Incubator directors Lisa Meehan and Simone Anderson.

Promotions manager Jacqui Knight says her town's piano is now located at the Katikati Craft and Mural Shop. 'The piano, decorated as liquorice allsorts, is very, very cool.”

The idea to put the pianos in the region's streets arose from last year's ‘For the Love of Tauranga' workshop, led by international community development expert Peter Kageyama and organised by Creative Tauranga.

Lisa and Simone say artists for each piano varied in number and style, participating from The Incubator Facebook page and website requests.

'We just have groups of people coming in [to paint], we had about five of us paint Katikati's piano as Liquorice allsorts; prior to that we've had to 23 artists over as couple of weekends when we painted the first three,” says Lisa, who says Resene sponsor paint for the projects.

Lisa says the pianos are donated or bought from Trademe.

'We're also hoping to find sponsorship for the cost of custom-made trolleys to enable them to be easily pushed into public spaces.

'It's a community project, done with love for the community to enjoy – nobody gets any money out of it, just enjoyment.”

To find out more about The Incubator, visit its Facebook page.

Also at Historic Village this Saturday, is an open day. The village, on 17^th Ave, is hosting the open day from 10am-2pm, offering a huge range of activities, classes and gift ideas.

Drawcards include gem testing, fine art, photography lessons, fashion design, ninja knitting, gardening, Village Radio, sustainability activities and much more. To find out more, visit the Historic Village, Tauranga, Facebook page or 07 571 3700.