Expert Series: “The Shakers”

Join us for a conversation exploring how the Shakers’ principles of community, purposeful design and minimalism shaped their daily life and continue to inspire and influence makers and artists today. Inspired by the exhibition The Shakers: A World in the Making , this discussion will reveal the surprising ways a small American utopian community continues to inspire creativity, sustainability, and thoughtful design. The Expert Series welcomes renowned artists, scholars, and cultural activators to the Museum for expansive dialogues that dive deeper into an exhibition, artist, or theme. The Shakers: A World in the Making is organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Vitra Design Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, and the Wüstenrot Foundation, in collaboration with Shaker Museum, Chatham, New York Image: Meetinghouse (1793), Hancock Shaker Village, Hancock, MA, 2024. Photo: © Vitra Design Museum / Alex Lesage, courtesy Hancock Shaker Village Meet the experts Chris L. Halstrøm is a Danish/Swedish furniture designer and textile artist, educated at The Royal Danish Academy, Furniture in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2007, with prior studies in Stockholm, Sweden and Berlin, Germany. Halstrøm has worked commercially with companies such as Fritz Hansen and Design Within Reach, and more experimentally with objects for numerous exhibitions, including at The Mak Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, USA, and 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, Japan. Halstrøm has received several grants and prizes, including the Three-Year Work Grant from The Danish Arts Foundation in 2017, The Finn Juhl Prize 2022, and Ole Haslunds Kunstnerfond 2024. Since 2020, Halstrøm has mainly focused on their textile art practice, exhibiting in Denmark, Sweden, the UK, the USA, and Germany. Kameelah Janan Rasheed is a learner and death doula in training. Her middle name, Janan, meaning heart and soul, comes from the Arabic root J-N-N (جنان), evoking that which is…