Shaker Museum Gala Helps Build A Building…And Community
The gala celebrated and embodied the Shaker values of community and inclusion.
The gala celebrated and embodied the Shaker values of community and inclusion.
Board member Robert Fuller, Director of Visual Merchandising for Chanel U.S. and antiques dealer; and Karen Suen-Cooper, co-founder of The Punctilious Mr. P's Place Card Co.
“Shaker Museum is all about building,” said the Museum’s board president Paul Cassidy at its summer gala at a private estate in Old Chatham, New York. on Saturday, Aug. 21. Yes, the organization — which holds the world’s most comprehensive Shaker collection — is in the process of a multimillion-dollar makeover of a Victorian building at the foot of Main Street in Chatham. When it opens in 2023, it will serve as the Museum’s offices and permanent collection. But there is also other building going on, as the Shaker Museum fosters relationships and community by sharing Shaker values and history. Guests at the gala enjoyed drinks and hors d’oeuvres on the vast property, then gathered under a tent for dinner. The real Shakers may not have dined as glamorously, but they might have been impressed with the continuation of Shaker values by their current proponents.













Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo