Lacy Schutz, executive director of the Shaker Museum in Chatham, New York, has spent much of her working life preserving hidden pieces of history and making them accessible to the general public. Schutz had what she terms “a little bit of an unusual path” into the museum world: having completed masters degrees in poetry and information science, she trained as an archivist, going on to found the archive programme at the Clark Art Institute in Massachusetts — her first museum role.
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.