Art & Science Come Together at the Long Dash Festival

August 18, 2024 | 10:00am to 6:00pm
rare ECO Centre
768 Blair Road, Cambridge, ON N1R 5S3

On August 18th, join rare Charitable Research Reserve and Musagetes for the inaugural Long Dash Festival, a collaborative event bringing together the worlds of art and science. At the rare ECO Centre in Cambridge, Ontario, 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.

See below for program details and register by program activity.

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 Butterfly Artist Fellowship — 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.

Program:

A rare Sound Walk
10:00 to 11:30am

Listen carefully to the environment around you with musicians and poets performing at various locations along the Grand Trunk Trail, Woodland Trail, and River Trail. The full loop takes about an hour to explore.

The Grand Trunk Trail features flat gravel trails. The Woodland and River Trails features soil/rocky substrate and areas with narrow footpaths and moderately rugged terrain with roots and rocks.

Curated by Guy Few, Artistic Director of NUMUS. For a list of participating musicians, visit the registration page.

Lunch
11:30am to 12:45pm

Sandwiches and wraps provided by Seven Shores Café.

Plant Fibre-Making and Migration Stories (Becoming and Moving Part I)
1:00 to 2:30pm

Join us for a hands-on workshop where we will gather Phragmites, Cattails, and plant remnants from the community farm to create fibre pieces using traditional paper-making techniques. These small sheets of fibre will be crafted to collaboratively develop an ephemeral, site-specific sculpture that will stay on the land to get absorbed back into the earth in which we gathered the plants—reflecting the local ecologies of water, soil, plants, and human narratives.

As we work, we will weave personal narratives of belonging and migration, crafting a sculpture that reflects our interconnections with the land and the intricate web of life thriving amidst the Cattail and Phragmites plants. This collective piece will be a sculptural centerpiece for the afternoon’s movement improvisation performance.

Space is limited, so register early!

Sun Marks on a Tilted Planet: a cyanotype workshop for artists
3:00 to 4:30pm

Led by Lisa Hirmer, this workshop is designed for artists and invites participants to experiment together with making cyanotypes, a camera-less type of direct photo print that uses a specially coated paper, sunlight, and water. Come with a project or loose idea to test out on site, then together we’ll discuss the medium and collaboratively review our project results.

All materials and supplies provided.

Space is limited, so register early! Suitable for artists aged 16+.

Performance by Victoria Mata (Becoming and Moving Part II)
4:45 to 5:45pm

Join accomplished dancer and choreographer Victoria Mata as she translates the stories and connections shared in the “Becoming and Moving” workshop into a movement exploration animating the wearable sculpture.

To learn more visit the Long Dash info page.

BioBlitz!
All Afternoon

Become a community scientist and learn from experts in the field about how to find and identify species of plants, animals, and insects while exploring rare’s Cliffs and Alvars trail systems during the BioBlitz.

What is a BioBlitz? It’s a short period of biological surveying where a group of experts, naturalists, and community members explore an area and record as many species as they can to help inform future research.

All experience levels are welcome! Guided hikes will be leaving every hour from the ECO Centre (1:00, 2:00, and 3:00pm). Together, we will explore areas of the Cliffs and Alvars trail system with soil/rocky substrate and areas with narrow footpaths and moderately rugged terrain from roots and rocks.

More detailed accessibility information can be found on Musagetes’ website. To keep current with our latest content, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

For more information contact: info@musagetes.ca

Musagetes
6 Dublin Street South
Guelph, Ontario N1H 4L5