The President of the Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon, David Stocks, has resigned to take a new position as Program Director in the Arts with the Education Foundation of America, based in Garrison, NY.
[private]David joined the Museum in 2007 and worked diligently to raise the profile of the Shakers and their pivotal role creating “radical” American ideas after their arrival in New York State in 1774, just before the time of the American Revolution. These ideas included gender equality, racial equality, pacifism, communal work and property ownership.
David, along with Jerry Grant, Director of Collections and Research, brought the collection of the Museum to the attention of a wider audience, including globally. This expansion began with the 2008 loan exhibition at the Winter Antiques Show in New York City, and continued through 2014 with The Shakers: From Mount Lebanon to the World, an exhibition at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, ME, with an accompanying 160-page catalog by Skira/Rizzoli. With Hancock Shaker Village, MA, the Shaker Heritage Society (in Watervliet, NY), and the New York State Museum, Library and Archives in Albany, NY, the Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon cooperatively created The Shakers: America’s Quiet Revolutionaries, a 7,000 square foot exhibition. These efforts culminated in March 2015 with a highly-praised three room Shaker exhibition at the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, the Netherlands, along with its accompanying catalog by Assouline Press entitled Shaker: Function, Purity, Perfection. The exhibit and catalog were spearheaded by Philippe Segalot of New York and Francois Laffanour of Paris.
Three years prior to David’s arrival, the Museum acquired ten buildings on 30 acres at the North Family historic site, part of the Mount Lebanon National Historic Landmark District in New Lebanon, New York. There, the exposed walls of the iconic 1859 Great Stone Barn were in danger of falling following a devastating fire in 1972, which destroyed its roof and interior wooden support structures. David successfully managed a $2.1 million stabilization project. Additionally, a Preservations Trades Training program with the Bennet Street School in Boston worked on roof, chimney and gutter repairs at the Brethren’s Workshop. David also oversaw the acquisition of 60 acres of historic Shaker land adjacent to the Great Stone Barn, and successfully advocated for the Mount Lebanon U.S. Forest Legacy Program, which will preserve 1,310 acres of historic Shaker lands through the Columbia Land Conservancy.
David helped build active programming at the North Family historic site, now bustling with visitors taking tours during the summer season.
Exhibitions at Mount Lebanon last year included “Utopian Benches,” by sculptor Francis Cape, and Dan Graham’s video essay “Rock My Religion.”
This year’s exhibitions are “Side by Side: Shaker and Modern Design” and “The Small World of Shaker: Miniature Furniture, Books & Dolls.”
The Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon, located in New Lebanon, New York, is dedicated to engaging and inspiring local, national, and global audiences by telling the story of the American Shakers. The museum’s collections span over 60,000 objects and it stewards the North Family historic site at Mount Lebanon, a National Historic Landmark. The museum is open seasonally at the site from June to October, and offers programs year-round. Please visit www.shakerml.org for more information.[/private]