Canterbury Shaker Village awarded $293K grant from The Institute of Museum and Library Services

CANTERBURY — Canterbury Shaker Village has been awarded a $293,760 grant from The Institute of Museum and Library Services to enable the village to catalog and inventory approximately 25,000 objects and develop a Museum Lab, which will aid in the village's initiative to expand access to its museum collection and increase public understanding of the societal impact of the Canterbury Shakers.

Over the course of two years, the project team will complete inventory and accessioning of the objects in its collection, while updating conservation priorities and storage for vulnerable materials, as well as finishing systemic photography and digitization of physical objects. Additionally, the museum will establish a Museum Lab that will not only support improvements in collections care but will allow for further public engagement with museum visitors. This upcoming work is the second phase in a three-phased initiative to improve the management and access of the Village's collection.

Project Director and Curator of Research and Collections Shirley Wajda is grateful to IMLS for this opportunity to document and preserve the village's nationally important collections while expanding opportunities to share the collections with the public.

"Every day we hear from visitors wishing to know more about the Shakers by seeing and understanding more of the objects they made and used. With this grant, we will be able to offer visitors more access to the Canterbury Shakers' extensive material world," she said. 

Grants Administrator and the Village's Executive Director, Erin Hammerstedt, sees this as an opportunity to make significant progress on the priorities stated in the museum's new strategic plan.

"This grant enables us to improve our stewardship of this tremendous museum collection and offer more compelling experiences to our visitors," she said.

This grant is part of IMLS's Museums for America program, which invests in museums via project-based efforts to serve the public through educational programs and exhibitions, community partnerships, and collections stewardship activities.

For more information, visit shakers.org.