Handled with Care:  The Function of Form in Shaker Craft

On view April 15, 2023

From baskets to boxes, the Shakers elevated the everyday objects around them with beauty, order, and proportion. Join us for the debut of Handled With Care: The Function of Form in Shaker Craft an exhibition in collaboration with the New Britain Museum of American Art (opens late fall in New Britain, CT).

For Shaker craftspeople, the pursuit of form and function was an act of faith. Setting lofty standards for design, construction, and quality of materials, they elevated the everyday, investing the material world around them with beauty, order, and proportion. This exhibition features rarely seen objects from the private collection of M. Stephen and Miriam Miller and the permanent collection of Hancock Shaker Village. All of the objects on display from dustpans to dippers, brushes to baskets, and hat forms to hangers, combine design, material, fabrication, and colorful finishes that will surprise and delight! Each one reveals the Shakers’ quiet dedication to perfection and function.