It’s both ironic and bittersweet that broad interest in and admiration for Shaker art and culture—which marks its 250th anniversary in the US this year—has been steadily growing over the years and is at a high, even as the population of the group has dwindled close to zero.

On a Thursday afternoon in late summer Frances McDormand, the actor, and Suzanne Bocanegra, a conceptual artist, were testing out a Shaker cradle for adults. The exhibit of these little-known furniture items that they put together for the Shaker Museum’s pop-up gallery was days from opening in the K...

Actress Frances McDormand has teamed up with conceptual artist Suzanne Bocanegra for "Cradled," a thought-provoking exhibition in collaboration with the Shaker Museum that illuminates the core Shaker values of compassionate care at the Kinderhook Knitting Mill.

Shaker Museum’s first pop-up exhibition of 2024 is entitled “Palm to Poplar: Devotional Labor.” It is an exhibition of original paintings by Caitlin MacBride currently on view in a gallery at Kinderhook Knitting Mill in Kinderhook, New York through April 28. “Palm to Poplar” showcases MacBride’s paintings o...

Even as far as American religious sects are concerned, the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, better known as the Shakers, are an intriguing lot.

Shaker Museum will open a new library, archive, and administrative facility at 29 Jones Avenue in Chatham, Columbia County, NY, thanks to a donation from longtime Shaker Museum supporter Jack Shear. Shear’s gift includes the property as well as the cost to renovate the building, representing a $1.6 m...

Since its founding in 1747 in Manchester, England, the egalitarian spirit of the Shaker sect has espoused an "equality of the sexes" model that supports women in spiritual leadership roles. The progressive nature of the Shaker worldview can be admired for its equity, and artist Caitlin MacBride's Shaker-inspired...

Hudson-based artist Caitlin MacBride explores the intermingling of creed, labor, and desire through her painterly examination of classic Shaker material culture. A pop-up show at the Kinderhook Knitting Mill presented by the Shaker Museum showcases her richly painted canvases of stoic objects such as...

Lacy Schutz, executive director of the Shaker Museum in Chatham, New York, has spent much of her working life preserving hidden pieces of history and making them accessible to the general public. Schutz had what she terms “a little bit of an unusual path” into the museum world: having completed masters deg...

Tune in during the 4 p.m. hour for the debut of the new recurring segment “Shaker Show” with Sarah Van Buren, Dana Rasso, and Jerry Grant of Shaker Museum, interviewed by Tom Roe live from the WGXC Hudson studio. The inaugural “Shaker Show” will guide listeners through the history...

When you make a product by hand, it automatically has a story. The fact that you have chosen to invest your time, energy, and skill to produce something means there has to be a deeper purpose to the object. This is clearly evidenced in “The Alchemy of Re.Use” – a new exhibition at the Kinderhook Knitt...

The provenance-soaked approach of fashion designer Emily Adams Bode Aujla takes new shape with ‘The Commercialisation of Shaker Knits’, an exhibition for the Shaker Museum that traces the development of knitting from the late 19th century to the present day, curated by Bode Aujla and currently on vie...

In July, I joined a small group for a tour of the collection of the Shaker Museum in Old Chatham, New York, where we meandered among metal shelves filled with thousands of wooden boxes and benches, baskets and tables, brooms and bureaus, chests and ladder-back chairs, all meticulously catalogued and...

Between them chefs Jody Williams and Rita Sodi own five restaurants, all within blocks of each other in NYC’s West Village. The couple’s interests extend beyond the culinary—in addition to getting every bite just right (their trattoria Via Carota is the Remodelista go-to for celebrations of every sort)...

AS THE SHAKER MUSEUM GETS A MODERN MAKEOVER, THE INSTITUTIONS’ NEW ARTIST-LED MAKERS’ CIRCLE WEIGHS IN ON THE EVOLVING INFLUENCE OF SHAKER STYLE TODAY. Arriving in the United States around 1774, the Shakers were a Utopian sect who created a distinctly new design vernacular. Prioritizing function abo...

In August of 1774, eight intrepid Shakers landed in Manhattan from Manchester, England, in search of a home where they could practice their fledgling religion in peace. Nearly two and half centuries later, their presence has returned to the borough; specifically, to a storybook stretch of Commerce Street...

At a buzzy restaurant in New York’s West Village, a chalkboard specials menu hangs from a peg rail, pew-shaped wooden booths offer cozy seating near a zinc-topped bar, and a generous, spindle-backed banquette wraps around the dining room. Purity of form reigns here at The Commerce Inn, the latest hot t...

When the Shakers arrived in New York City in 1774, their particular blend of English heritage, industriousness, and devout Christian worship immediately branded the religious sect as outsiders. Read the full article in National Geographic here.

CHATHAM, N.Y. – Imagine if every single object in your home was exquisitely crafted, aesthetically pleasing and worked perfectly, from your kitchen utensils to your reading lamps. That ideal world of beauty and functionality was what the Shakers…set out to build 250 years ago. Read the full...

CHATHAM, N.Y. – They invented the flat broom, the circular saw and a wheel-driven washing machine. A new museum will celebrate their contribution to seed banking and racial and gender parity too. Meet the Shakers. Read the full article in the Financial Times here.

Plans for the new home of Upstate New York’s Shaker Museum have been unveiled this week, offering the public a glimpse at the multimillion-dollar makeover that has given new life to a restored former Hudson Valley hotel. Selldorf Architects is responsible for the effort which will add some much-needed sh...

New York’s Shaker Museum has revealed renderings of its forthcoming $18 million permanent home in the Hudson Valley village of Chatham. Once complete, the museum will house an expansive collection of objects, archival materials, and, of course, furniture, associated with the United Society of Believ...

CHATHAM, N.Y. — In an earlier life, the moribund red brick Victorian at the foot of Main Street in this thriving Columbia County village had been a sanitarium, a hotel and tavern, a furniture store and an auto dealership. These were the warm-up acts for its latest incarnation: a permanent new home f...

CHATHAM—The Shaker Museum presented plans to the Village Planning Board for the museum’s new site at 5 Austerlitz Street at an online meeting Monday, January 25. “If I had to vote right now, I’d vote yes,” said Planning Board Chair Dan Herrick of the designs for the brick building near the traffic c...

Irreverent young design star Katie Stout has pulled yet another unexpected rabbit out of her proverbial hat. She has curated a show, not of contemporary design, but of Shaker craft, in partnership with the Shaker Museum, at their temporary exhibition space in downtown Chatham, New York. Fringe Selects is a...

For his new show at the Tang Museum, “Energy in All Directions,” curator and director Ian Berry has woven together objects, artwork, communities and organizations like the tightly laced spokes of a Shaker basket. At its most tangible level, the show juxtaposes pieces from the collection of the Shaker Mus...

Earlier this year, directors of the Shaker Museum—founded by John S. Williams 70 years ago in Old Chatham, New York, to showcase furnishings and objects made by the Christian sect—acquired a nearby building that soon will house their collection of more than 18,000 artifacts, marking the most dynamic expa...

Shaker-style furniture has long been celebrated by design lovers for its lean, sparing lines and uncompromising simplicity. Perhaps less known to these same design buffs are the ideals of inclusion and fairness to which the Shakers—members of a religious sect who traveled from England to the American N...

The Shaker Museum in Upstate New York has selected Selldorf Architects to design a permanent home for its collection of artifacts from the Shakers, a utopian community best known today for its minimalist furniture. Read the full article in The Architect’s Newspaper. 

The Shaker Museum in Chatham, New York, devoted to the culture of the mostly extinct religious sect, has launched a $15m effort to create a 30,000 sq. ft building for its collection, which spans more than 18,000 objects and archival materials. Read the full article in The Art Newspaper.

CHATHAM — The Shaker Museum is creating a $15 million permanent home for the 18,000 objects in a collection described as the world’s most comprehensive holdings of Shaker objects and archives. Read the full article in the Times Union.

The Shaker Museum announced Monday that it has acquired a four-floor, 30,000-square foot building in downtown Chatham, New York. The museum owns and manages the Shaker Village at Mount Lebanon. Now, it will have its first space to display 18,000 archival pieces that explore life inside the utopian Protestant...

Ralph Gardner, Jr., a journalist and WAMC commentator, talks about his experience being an honoree at the Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon’s annual benefit. Listen here.

From Artnet News: The Shakers, a 19th-century Christian religious sect known for its furniture design and craftsmanship, has become a major influence on Amie Cunat, who last year transformed VICTORI + MO into a brightly colored meetinghouse based on historic Shaker artifacts. This time around, she’s b...

WAMC commentator Ralph Gardner, Jr. talks about the Shakers and a recent exhibition of Shaker baskets from Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon at the Columbia County Historical Society.