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The long and winding road has led Michelle Slater back to music.

A 1998 graduate of the College of Music, Slater got her Bachelor of Music before moving on to study – and eventually teach – literature. After a few years as a professor and amateur musician, a feeling that had been stirring since she was a teenager began to guide Slater in a different – yet familiar – direction.

“Even when I was a boarding school student at Interlochen Arts Academy, I had a vision of starting a small grassroots institute where artists, scholars and environmentalists could think creatively,” she says.

Then the economic recession hit. “I kept reading articles about the decline in funding for the arts,” Slater explains. “And I knew they were precious domains that needed to be cultivated and protected in the face of that economic decline.”

She decided to take action. Slater founded the  in 2013. The center, based in Connecticut, takes an interdisciplinary approach the arts. Its summer workshops for adults focus on creative writing, the visual arts, music, theater and humanities, peppering in lectures, seminars and improvisation throughout the week and culminating with a performance or art show.

“And in all of the workshops, we have an environmental component,” Slater says. “So everyone will participate in gardening, or being in charge of composting for a day.

“It all goes back to being mindful. In a world where we’re so attached to our smartphones and get distracted so easily, the musician or scholar needs to quiet that static in order to follow our inspiration and intuition,” she explains.

The center’s purpose is to help equip musicians, writers and artists for what lies ahead in their fields. “We once invited the Philip Glass ensemble as a surprise for our students. They got to play brand new, unpublished music. It was collaborative and groundbreaking,” Slater says. “That’s the direction that we’re going in. We want to be able to innovate, think expansively, create in ways that aren’t currently being done.”

Slater’s goals for Mayapple include a weekend program for high school students, study abroad opportunities and forums discussing the state of art in the 21st century. “It’s my purpose to contribute to the arts and humanities and carry a torch for the arts and the humanities,” she says.

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