Harmony at Dusk brings music, art, and family fun to Gardens

A free evening of live music, hands-on art and a student-made video show will turn Harmony Gardens into a spring destination when Buena Vista University and Witter Gallery team up for Harmony at Dusk on Friday, April 24, from 7 to 9 p.m.

The centerpiece is Visual Sound, a live video show built around sound and audience participation. BVU students in the university’s Advanced Video class created the short film, giving children a chance to play with sounds recorded in Harmony Gardens and then see those sounds woven into the final experience. The format pushes the event beyond a standard concert and into something more interactive, with art, media and performance all happening in the same setting.

Music will come from the BVU Rock Ensemble, led by Aaron Eastwood, an assistant professor of music production who joined the faculty in 2021. The student group performs classic hits at campus and community events throughout the year, and its appearance at Harmony at Dusk adds a familiar live-music anchor for families who want more than a quiet gallery stop. Eastwood’s background in music production and audio work fits the event’s multimedia style, especially with BVU students creating audio and video in live-concert, recording-studio and major-venue settings.

The evening will also include hands-on art activities spread throughout the gardens, giving attendees several ways to take part instead of just watch. Local artist and Witter Gallery board member April Mason will offer an art demonstration, and the finished piece she creates will become part of the Wingspan Raffle during the event. Mason has been creating and selling original artwork for more than 25 years, taught popular Witter Gallery classes such as pet portrait and Starry Night painting sessions, and spent 2018 until returning to Iowa in 2024 as a studio artist and instructor at Terra Gallery in Columbus, Ohio.

For BVU, the collaboration fits a larger service mission the university describes as Education for Service. Buena Vista College was founded in 1891 by the Presbyterian Church (USA) and became Buena Vista University in 1995, and BVU says students contribute tens of thousands of service hours each year. With the university’s 60-acre Storm Lake campus sitting on the shores of Storm Lake, events like Harmony at Dusk make that mission visible in a place where campus life and community life often overlap.