shaker museum

How can we shed light on the way museums are reimagining how they put their core values into action? 

  • How do you illuminate the ways a museum is deepening bonds with artisans, inspiring new thinking, and exploring more meaningful approaches to tackling social, economic, environmental, and spiritual issues?
  • What are digitally inclusive and immersive ways to explore one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of Shaker artifacts?
  • How do you bring global citizens, artisans, and local communities onboard to support the growth and modernization of the Shaker Museum as it expands its footprint? 

It’s not easy, but it takes:

  • Take a collaborative, human-centered design approach
  • Think about the different audiences and their needs
  • Connect core values to contemporary thinking and action
  • Bring the values of inclusion and access to life inside the experience, as the Shakers did with their community members and neighbors
  • Highlight relationships between current events and the people and values that inspired them

We love our longstanding relationships with leaders who are shaping the future of the world we live in. That’s why we’re thrilled to be collaborating again with Lacy Schutz, Executive Director of The Shaker Museum, a visionary who is leading the process of reinventing the museum experience by preserving Shaker values and using a contemporary lens to make them relevant today.

The Shakers are known for their chairs and celibacy, but they’re much more than that. They have inclusive values and were innovative designers and inventors.

It all started in 2017, when Analogous worked strategically with the Shaker Museum to bring its brand to life in the digital space by incorporating inclusive design principles into its website design. Now, in 2023, as the museum grows and takes the collection to the next level, we are continuing the work in parallel as they fund their new building in Chatham, NY. 

The design and the programming envisioned for this new facility re-examine the experience and interaction of a visitor with a museum while keeping practicality and inclusivity at the forefront, ranging from the arrival experience to common space usage to exhibition accessibility. We are applying those same intentions to rethinking the digital experience of the Shaker Museum’s website by bringing their collection of over 18,000 physical artifacts to life online, and reconnecting the public with core Shaker values, like celebrating inclusion, creativity, and invention, to drive support for their new capital campaign. 

 

Results

RESULTS

  • Check out the Shaker Museum’s new online presence through their website.
  • We created a digitally inclusive experience for the museum collection that has enabled the brand to grow its online following on social media platforms like Instagram.
  • The new site has opened doors for the public to support the museum’s new capital campaign for their new building.
  • We provide a single platform to integrate both their online and offline initiatives, so they could all connect back to the collection and other museum resources.
  • We’re excited to be a part of how museums with inclusive values grow and expand.

 

Interested in Museums that Open Doors? Check out our conversation with Lacy Schutz, Executive Director of the Shaker Museum on Project Inclusion. Subscribe to the podcast for other inspiring conversations.