A Shaker Village Finds Enterprise Is Not So Simple
THE NEW YORK TIMES
MASSACHUSETTS---Ms. Steigleder believes that, more than ever, the Shakers have something to share with society. In the two years since Ms. Steigleder’s arrival, Hancock Shaker Village, on a bare-bones budget, has returned to operating in the black. The days of deficit spending are over, Ms. Steigleder said, and there is a sense of cautious optimism about the future. Several other small but notable developments feed the sense of a resurging interest in the Shakers: a new exhibition at the New York State Museum in Albany (through March 6, 2016); a show at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Me. (through March 8); a glossy book, “The Shakers: From Mount Lebanon to the World” (Rizzoli); and a well-received production by the Wooster Group, “Early Shaker Spirituals,” that returns to New York in April. [link]
By Brian Schaefer
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| Shaker oval boxes and furniture have been the sect’s cultural calling card. Credit Ángel Franco/The New York Times |