NEW BRITAIN, CONN.- The New Britain Museum of American Art announces the new permanent Shaker Gallery, one of only three found in U.S. art museums, alongside the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The brainchild of Trustee and Shaker authority Steve Miller, the permanent gallery will rotate pieces from the Miller Collection in addition to gifts and loans on a regular basis, as each exhibition will “focus on” a different Shaker theme. Miller curated the standout 2010 exhibition, Inspired Innovations: A Celebration of Shake Ingenuity, which featured 300 works from the Miller Collection and loans from various private and public collections.

The gallery’s inaugural exhibition, The Shakers: Focus on: Enfield, Connecticut, features many rare and authentic items from the Enfield Shaker community including furniture, small crafts, textiles, and works on paper. There are significant gifts of objects from several generous donors including nine objects from the widow of a direct descendent of the Enfield Shakers, Eldress Caroline Tate, the last leader of the community.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a majestic “case piece” that was once built into the Laundry Building at Enfield and is now in the permanent collection of the NBMAA. The built-in case consists of 22 drawers and is surrounded by six cupboards. The master Shaker craftsman Grove Wright built it in 1858.

Members of the Shaker group chose to give up their families, property, and worldly ties in order to experience the peaceable nature of Christ’s kingdom. They lived together in holy families, which placed emphasis on communal living, celibacy, and gender equality, though the group came to be known for their brilliant craftsmanship in architecture and furniture.

In particular, the Shakers’ have had a vital connection to Connecticut. On her first mission trip in 1781, Mother Ann Lee, the Shakers’ spiritual leader, made an early stop in the town of Enfield to the home of the Meacham family. Joseph Meacham soon became the first American-born leader of the sect. From its establishment here in 1792 to its closure in 1917, the Enfield community was among Mother’s most powerful legacies and an appropriate focus for the inaugural Shaker exhibition.