Shaker Museum will open a new library, archive, and administrative facility at 29 Jones Avenue in Chatham, Columbia County, NY, thanks to a donation from longtime Shaker Museum supporter Jack Shear.
Shear’s gift includes the property as well as the cost to renovate the building, representing a $1.6 million investment in the future of the museum. The new facility is slated to open June 2024 and will round out the Shaker Museum campus in Chatham, which also includes the forthcoming museum designed by Selldorf Architects at 5 Austerlitz Street.
Collections Manager
Sharon Duane Koomler is a Shaker scholar and traditional letterpress printer living in upstate New York. She has academic degrees in American Folklore from Indiana University and Western Kentucky University. Sharon has worked at Shaker Museums from Kentucky to New Hampshire as an educator, curator, consultant, and director. She has written and published on Shaker material culture and spirituality, and lectured widely on Shaker art, life, and belief. Sharon has a particular interest in the under-researched social aspects of Shaker life and ways in which Shakers practiced inclusion and intentionality.