The Hylton Performing Arts Center was pleased to welcome folk and children’s band, Elena Moon Park & Friends as a spring 2025 George Mason Artist-in-Residence. This engaging group of musicians worked with the community offering opportunities for learning and educational activities in conjunction with their Hylton Family Series performance on February 8. The band performs music for audiences of all ages and features music from East and Southeast Asia, plus original songs reimagined to mix musical traditions, languages, styles, and stories, Park celebrates learning about the world through music.
“It was an immense joy to spend the week with Elena Moon Park & Friends creating art and music with members of our community,” said Marit Majeske, education coordinator at the Hylton Center. “They were able to bring out creativity in everyone they worked with to develop imaginative drawings and ideas based around their music.”
The musicians participated in the following engagement activities during their residency:
Four sessions of an interactive workshop titled Let’s Draw a Story! Sounds, Dreams, and Story Shares for students at R.C. Haydon Elementary School in Manassas
Third-grade students participated in interactive art workshops where they used their imaginations to create drawings based on the music and sound they listened to in their sessions.
A workshop titled Let’s Make an Intergenerational Song! Sound, Memory, and Story Shares for residents at The Wellington at Lake Manassas senior living community
Residents of The Wellington at Lake Manassas senior living community worked together to create an original song inspired by the drawings made by third-grade students from R.C. Haydon Elementary School.
A sold-out field trip performance for kindergarten through third-grade students from Prince William County, City of Manassas, and City of Manassas Park
Prior to the ensemble’s Hylton Family Series performance on February 8, a family-friendly craft activity was held in the Jacquemin Family Foundation Hall where participants made flowers out of cupcake wrappers.
Learn more about Mason’s Artist-in Residence program and how these residencies create spaces for transformational experiences to happen.