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An art exhibition about the Shakers, also known as The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, would naturally have furniture. The Institute of Contemporary Art has plenty: ladder chairs, rocking chairs, swivel chairs, side tables, bureaus, dressers and the hand tools that made them.
“I like to think of the furniture as a gateway drug to the Shakers,” said co-curator Shoshana Resnikoff, of the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Some of the chairs are hung on the gallery walls so visitors can get up close and see the masterful details. One simple side table is made from five species of wood, each one selected to play a specific role in furniture making.
“These are very complex pieces of furniture. They are deceptively simple,” Resnikoff said. “It’s a gateway for people to begin to understand their community and their belief system.”
“A World in the Making: The Shakers,” opening this weekend at the ICA, is a collaborative traveling exhibition of the ICA, the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Vitra Design Museum of Rhein, Germany, with significant contributions from the Shaker Museum in New Lebanon, New York.