Naperville club planning outdoor instruments in 'Harmony Park'
A Naperville service club has a musical idea: outdoor instruments that everyone can play.
The concept could become reality as soon as next summer, as the Rotary Club of Naperville works to create what's imagined as a peaceful, unifying space called Rotary Harmony Park.
"It promotes harmony in the community," Rotary Club of Naperville President John Norman said.
The club last week donated $23,000 raised at a festival this fall to the public art nonprofit Century Walk Corp. to help create the park.
The two organizations plan to work together to find a location near downtown, possibly along the Riverwalk, to establish the park and fill it with three or four outdoor instruments.
Instruments to be placed in the park might look like drums, bells, cymbals, chimes, a harp, a xylophone or even flowers. But Norman says they'll be accessible to all people no matter their musical abilities, physical limitations or sensory needs, and they'll be tuned to sound, well, harmonious.
"They're almost sculpture-looking," Norman said about the instruments, which the Rotary and Century Walk plan to buy from a Colorado-based company called Freenotes. "They're beautiful pieces."
Norman said the club is close to securing a location to place the instruments and wants it to be a well-traveled spot near downtown. The chosen site could need approval from up to three groups - the Naperville City Council, the Riverwalk Foundation and the Naperville Park District.
Even if approval is necessary, Norman said he's optimistic Rotary Harmony Park can be established by July.
Plans for the park are separate from an idea discussed this summer of potentially lowering the 72 bells of the Millennium Carillon to ground level and turning them into a "Harmony Garden" at Rotary Hill.
Riverwalk stewards raised that possibility because of structural concerns in an engineer's report about Moser Tower, which contains the bells. The thought was if the tower needs to be torn down for safety reasons or cost concerns, the bells donated by community members could be preserved and played in the park.
The city has created a task force to evaluate options for the future of the tower, such as maintaining it as is, enclosing its lower 72 feet in glass or tearing it down. A recommendation is expected sometime next year.