By Design: The Enduring Shaker Legacy
re-scheduled for Summer 2021
Cynthia Alberto ▪ Thomas Barger ▪ Ladies & Gentlemen Studio ▪ Gary Graham
Anne Lindberg ▪ Heide Martin ▪ Mary Mattingly ▪ Gregg Moore
Nakashima Woodworkers ▪ Laura Sansone / New York Textile Lab ▪ Ian Stell
Studio Gorm ▪ Christopher Specce ▪ Swamp Press ▪ Emmet Van Drieche
Commemorating its 60th anniversary, Hancock Shaker Village presents By Design: The Enduring Shaker Legacy (May 24 – October 31, 2020), a multifaceted exhibition highlighting the finest examples of Shaker craftsmanship alongside works by contemporary designers and makers whose practices speak to Shaker aesthetics and ideals. Shaker design is defined by purposeful concept and perfect execution—an aesthetic crafted by human hands intended for the divine. Since the eighteenth century, the Shakers have produced architecture, furniture, domestic and utilitarian tools, garments, and other objects of material culture that continue to serve as a touchstone of American vernacular design.
At its essence, this project asks: what is the enduring legacy of the Shakers, and how are Shaker ideals reflected through twentieth- and twenty-first-century design?
Consider a Shaker ladderback chair, comprised of four posts, three slats, and a basket-woven wool seat. It could not be a more simple, functional object; yet, it represents the work of generations of master craftsmen who designed, refined, and passed on the skill to produce a chair with an intent—both functional and spiritual—that manifests through the object itself. In the mid-twentieth century, “good design,” the idea that nothing can be added or taken away, became a guiding principle for designers that combined the technology of industrial production with the dream of a simpler, more meaningful way of life, and designers created minimialist, stripped-down furniture that resonated with the formal and conceptual properties of Shaker design.
Today, confronted with a precarious environment and a political and economic landscape in distress, designers are once again rethinking the ways our material landscape is designed, produced, and used. There is a growing movement to consume less and value the objects more, and a new generation of hybrid designer-maker-artists producing works that, again, speak to the intention, respect for materials, and exceptional craft embodied by Shaker design. Particularly in the northeast where there is a longstanding culture of craftsmanship, designers are becoming worldmakers—like the Shakers, envisioning and designing the spaces, objects, and systems in which they want to live.
Many works featured in By Design will come from Hancock Shaker Village’s 22,000-object collection and will represent exceptional examples of Shaker design—from iconic trestle tables, candle stands, and built-in cupboards to lesser-known tools, domestic objects, and goods for sale manufactured by Shaker industries. Each object will be selected for its significance within the Shaker design canon, as well as for its ability to reveal insights into the lives and beliefs of the Shakers. As a dialogical counterpoint, these iconic works created by the Shakers will be viewed alongside featured projects by a selection of established contemporary designer-makers whose diverse practices challenge disciplinary boundaries to envision alternative ways of giving shape to the world through design. The goal of this exhibition is to explore Shaker design on a continuum, addressing the significance of the Shaker aesthetic, ideals, and approach to craft yesterday, today, and in the future.
Each designer selected for By Design has a creative practice that is in some way resonant with the Shaker legacy. These connections range from more formal iterations of contemporary Shaker design—such as Heide Martin’s splint woven cabinets and indigo-dyed inlayed tables, and Studio Gorm’s Enfield Swivel Chair and Shaker Baskets—to very ideological associations that delve into the spiritual, agricultural, domestic, and utopian ideas that were the foundation of Shaker life. For example, Mary Mattingly, an artist interested in food security and community agriculture, will be creating a seed library and soil sanctuary that will allow visitors to consider and, indeed, participate in the system of regenerative agriculture practiced by the Shakers. Christopher Specce will be showing a redesigned suite of everyday household tools that, through material and construction, evoke the Shaker ideal of “hands to work,” or reaching a mindful state through mundane acts.
In tandem with the exhibition, we will present a robust suite of public programs to appeal to all ages, abilities, and interests. Among these will be a three-day Shaker Design Summit, October 23-25, 2020, intended to distill the central theme of the exhibition: the lasting impact of Shaker ideology and its effect on contemporary craft and design for the next generation of artists, designers, scholars, museum professionals, and Shaker enthusiasts. In lieu of a formal exhibition catalogue, conversations and workshops from the Summit, as well as interviews, texts, documentation, and other materials created over the course of the exhibition, will be captured and shared in a web archive that we hope will further encourage discussion of the exhibition and its main ideas.
There will be five featured makers-in-residence who will use the exhibition, collection, and landscape of Hancock Shaker Village as a source of inspiration for their work. Co-organized by the Furniture Society, the Village will host two furniture makers who will use the historic woodshop in the Village’s tannery building. New York designer Thomas Barger will be in residence this spring to create a one-of-a-kind work merging sculpture with an iconic piece of American design—in this case, a Shaker chair. One completed, Barger’s object will be on view in By Design. Lily Cox-Richard of Richmond, VA, has been selected for a residency as well. She will be working with makers of traditional Shaker brooms to craft a twenty-five-foot-long Shaker-style broom made from upcycled industrial materials. In August, New Orleans-based blacksmith Rachel David will immerse herself in Hancock Shaker Village’s architecture, collection, and archives to explore the idea of communal furniture and the social life of objects. Each maker-in-residence will have open studio time as a way to engage visitors in the process of their work.
In addition, there will be workshops on indigo dying and spoon carving; platforms for public participation within the exhibition itself; public performances; and symposia, lectures, and panels. An online archive will ensure that the conversations and events happening at Hancock Shaker Village reach a wide audience and have a life that extends past the close of the show.
This will be the first exhibition at a historic Shaker site to explore the continued legacy of Shaker design in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is a story we are uniquely positioned to tell, given the breadth and quality of Hancock Shaker Village’s collection and the overwhelming interest of contemporary designers to engage directly with Shaker material at an authentic Shaker site. The impact of Shaker aesthetics on contemporary designers is profound, but this connection has not yet been fully and explicitly explored. We expect that this exhibition will contribute to a better understanding of the enduring and immutable legacy of Shaker design and its implications in the design world of today.