Fordham University in New York City has received a $50,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Theology Program to fund a project that explores Shaker Art, Design, and Religion, in partnership with Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon. The grant is a companion to the $750,000 grant awarded by the Luce Foundation’s American Art Program to the Shaker Museum to digitize its collections. The project will be co-directed by Dr. Kathryn Reklis, a professor in the theology department at Fordham, and Lacy Schutz, executive director of the Shaker Museum. They will convene a group of eight Fellows to explore the experiential and communal aspects of Shakerism and the relationship between art and religion in museum spaces. Two convenings will take place at Fordham and one at the Shaker Museum, beginning this fall and running through fall 2019.
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.