Join rare and Mustagetes for the Long Dash Festival, a collaborative event bringing together the worlds of art and science. At the rare ECO Centre, you will find a series of programs throughout the day that explores the interconnections and overlaps between arts and science while showcasing the talents of various artists, naturalists and scientists.

In 2024, the Long Dash Festival took place on August 18th. Visit this page for full details.

Why the Long Dash?

The Long Dash Skipper, Polites mystic, is a brown and orange butterfly found in grassy habitats like meadows, marshes, stream banks and forest edges including on rare lands. Named after a butterfly like its sister programs — the Eastern Comma Artist in Residence and the Question Mark Fellowship — the Long Dash Festival also brings to mind punctuation, in this case em-dashes though also perhaps en-dashes and hyphens, all marks of connection that bring two parts into relationship with each other.

Similarly, the Long Dash Festival brings together the worlds of art and science—as well as those of Musagetes and rare—to explore what happens in the overlap.