Contributions by Glenn Adamson, Aaron Betsky, Jeffrey de Blois, Chris L. Halstrøm, David Hartt, Christien Meindertsma, Sarah Margolis-Pineo, Mabel Wilson, et al.
A close look at the creative production of the United States Shaker communities and their influence on designers and artists past and present
Established in the 18th century, the Shakers were a Christian community that embraced principles of social equality, communal property and pacifism, viewing labor and design as crucial expressions of their faith. The Shakers’ radically simple, functional objects have had a profound influence on modern design, inspiring generations of artists, architects and designers up to the present day. The Shakers: A World in the Making accompanies the eponymous exhibition—designed by Milan-based studio Formafantasma—which will showcase a wide range of Shaker furniture, architecture, tools and commercial goods. Works by contemporary artists and designers, including Chris Halstrøm, Christien Meindertsma and Kameelah Janan Rasheed, enter into dialogue with the historic exhibits, reflecting on the Shakers’ enduring relevance. The publication includes a rich array of thematic essays contextualizing the Shakers within the wider design, architecture and art canon, detailed studies of selected exhibits as well as personal insights by the contributing artist. Contemporary object and architectural photography offers a fresh perspective on one of the most compelling communal experiments of recent centuries. The exhibition is organized by the Vitra Design Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia.
Sister Polly Ann Reed, "A Type of Mother Hanna's Pocket Handkerchief" (1851), 'The Shakers: A World in the Making.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Cultured
Colin King
[The Shakers'] simplistic approach had a huge influence on modern design, and continues to inspire contemporary designers...
Wallpaper*
Anna Solomon
'The Shakers: A World in the Making' positions the 18th-century sect as a pioneer of simple, functional and democratic design – principles that still guide aesthetics today.
The Slowdown
Olivia Aylmer
More than just a visual survey, 'The Shakers: A World in the Making' serves as a window into the complex social, material, and spiritual context underlying these vernacular designs that still resonate centuries later.
The New York Times
Julie Lasky
Refracted through new interpreters, Shaker culture bends, and twists.
Art in America | Reframed
Kelly Presutti
While the simplicity of a perfectly made broom may seem little match for the problems we face, there is solace in recognizing those who are willing to labor in pursuit of a better world.
Cultured
Blakey Bessire
For the Shakers, 'the world' was all that existed outside of their pacifist communal living structures. The appetite for Shaker-dom feels consonant with this idea of the collective or lack thereof today. In 'A World in the Making: The Shakers,' that tension shows up most clearly in the contemporary works themselves, where Shaker belief is reactivated not as atmosphere but as language, gesture, and form.
The New York Times
Christopher Hawthorne
The austere craftsmanship of this disappearing group is as striking as their ecstatic worship.
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“There’s something romantic about the Shakers,” essayist Sarah Margolis-Pineo writes in new release, The Shakers: A World in the Making. It may seem odd to apply the idea of romance to a sect of celibate, semi-separatist, religious radicals, but there’s a distinctive allure at play here—an inexplicable magnetism that has attracted generations of the ‘World’s People,’ from curiosity seekers and scholars to antiquarians and artists. Today, as nations are on fire, oppressive regimes rise to power and alienation and loneliness have been declared public heath crises, the Shaker legacy of building more meaningful lives—together, in community—is all the more captivating and, in fact, urgent. Brother Arnold Hadd, one of the two practicing Shakers in the United States, likes to remind us that Shakers are simply ordinary people living extraordinary lives. Indeed, Shakers are world makers. Since the eighteenth century, Believers have led purposeful lives rooted in the divine values of simplicity, harmony and equality—what many scholars have called ‘heavenly blueprints.’” Featured here, an elder’s rocking chair, c. 1850–70, made of maple, birch and rush weave. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 8.5 x 11 in. / 284 pgs / 190 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $85.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $119 ISBN: 9783945852668 PUBLISHER: Vitra Design Museum AVAILABLE: 8/19/2025 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by Vitra Design Museum. Contributions by Glenn Adamson, Aaron Betsky, Jeffrey de Blois, Chris L. Halstrøm, David Hartt, Christien Meindertsma, Sarah Margolis-Pineo, Mabel Wilson, et al.
A close look at the creative production of the United States Shaker communities and their influence on designers and artists past and present
Established in the 18th century, the Shakers were a Christian community that embraced principles of social equality, communal property and pacifism, viewing labor and design as crucial expressions of their faith. The Shakers’ radically simple, functional objects have had a profound influence on modern design, inspiring generations of artists, architects and designers up to the present day. The Shakers: A World in the Making accompanies the eponymous exhibition—designed by Milan-based studio Formafantasma—which will showcase a wide range of Shaker furniture, architecture, tools and commercial goods. Works by contemporary artists and designers, including Chris Halstrøm, Christien Meindertsma and Kameelah Janan Rasheed, enter into dialogue with the historic exhibits, reflecting on the Shakers’ enduring relevance. The publication includes a rich array of thematic essays contextualizing the Shakers within the wider design, architecture and art canon, detailed studies of selected exhibits as well as personal insights by the contributing artist. Contemporary object and architectural photography offers a fresh perspective on one of the most compelling communal experiments of recent centuries.
The exhibition is organized by the Vitra Design Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia.
