Shakers
design group
The design activity of the Shakers involves the craft of a wide range of products including furniture, window frames, baskets, boxes, cabinets, textiles, and textile equipment.
Also called United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, they were one of the most successful communitarian societies among those which were established in America in 1700 and 1800.
The Shakers moved to the United States from the English city of Manchester in 1774 led by Ann Lee, founder of the movement. In the nearby of New York's county Albany, they started establishing the foundation for a religious scheme which exerted its full activity for 220 years. Today one Shaker community has remained at Sabbathday Lake in Maine where it carries on its original design activity.
As soon as they arrived to America the Shakers started attracting converts who liked the personal and spiritual relationship with God preached by Ann Lee, and gathered into communities bound by their shared beliefs and their commitment to honesty, sexual equality, and good human relationships. By 1830 many Shaker communities had been successfully established in New York, in Connecticut, in Massachusetts, in New Hampshire, in Kentucky, in Maine, in Ohio, and in Indiana reaching their higher level of popularity in 1850.
Ann Lee, also called Mother Ann, whose position involved Spiritual and Temporal Power was the prophet of Christ spirit and forecasted his future reincarnation. The Brothers and the Sisters in the Shaker community were working under her direction, and through their work, were aiming to create their vision of a terrestrial paradise. One day one of her disciples said that in creating a chair he was imagining to make it for an Angel.
The Shakers' design work consists of a wide range of creations which are characterised by creativity, accuracy, and simplicity.
Their buildings were skilfully constructed, and had modern and efficient amenities in a design which would emphasize the importance of function and style. The Shakers' creativity and skills, supported by the use of advanced technology, would result in a wide range of high quality innovative products that, in addition to being used within their group, were successfully marketed outside the community.
In the process of making a piece of furniture, the craftsperson would use their experience and observation to create functional and decorative solutions. They developed an approach to the complex problems that design involves which was based on a range of alternatives drawn from their own expectations and from the objective of satisfying the client's needs. Along these lines the Shakers created products which reflected their style and the society in which their communities were working.
As part of their intense social life the Shakers used to organise skilful dancing and singing activities.
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