Kiki Smith Curates Shaker Exhibition
Acclaims Pop Up Series
By: Shaker - Oct 01, 2026
For the third iteration of Shaker Museum’s acclaimed series of pop-up exhibitions, Kiki Smith, who has been lauded since the 1980s for her multidisciplinary work, will be the guest curator. Shaker Outpost: Kiki Smith’s Visiting considers the quiet intimacy of welcome, bringing together a selection of Smith’s blankets. Alongside original Shaker cabinets, chests, and other storage pieces, Smith will be showing woven blankets, works on paper, and sculptural objects. There will be work available for purchase by Kiki Smith and Lothar Osterburg.
Shaker Outpost: Kiki Smith’s Visiting will open to the public on Friday, October 9, at 4 Depot Square in downtown Chatham, NY, and will run through Sunday, December 20. A special opening reception with Kiki Smith will be held on Saturday, October 10 from 3:00-6:00 p.m.
Adjacent to the exhibition, the Shaker Outpost’s General Store is a one-of-a-kind gift shop drawing on the historic tradition of the Shakers’ public-facing stores at which the Shaker communities shared their goods for purchase with “the world.” The General Store, featuring original works by curator Maira Kalman, has been an unqualified success with capacity crowds, frequent return visitors, and sold-out items. Kalman will again stock (and re-stock) the General Store just in time for holiday gifting with her unique take on new, vintage, and antique pieces including notecards, books, textiles, kitchen items, handcrafted embroideries, and small design objects.
Regarding Smith’s debut exhibition with Shaker Outpost, Shaker Museum Executive Director Claudia Gould commented: “We are thrilled to welcome Kiki Smith for this beautifully insightful exhibition. Kiki has an extraordinary ability to make the familiar strange and the strange intimate. A body, a bird, a wolf, a star, a garment, or a domestic object can become, in her work, a way of thinking about our relationships to one another and to the natural world. Her art asks us to look closely and to consider the connections between human experience, imagination, and the material world.”
Gould continued, “That attention feels especially resonant in relation to the Shakers, whose objects brought together utility, devotion, discipline, and beauty. Kiki’s work similarly reminds us that making is a way of thinking, and that objects can carry meaning beyond their use. I am excited to see the conversations that her work will open with Shaker Museum’s collection.”
Kiki Smith reflected, “Blankets are a holy form that envelope, bring comfort, warmth and solace. I started making blankets as a teenager in the late sixties, inspired by patchwork quilts first and then I learned to appliqué, stitch, knit, and crochet blankets. I have made blankets and tapestries with/for Mattress Factory (Pittsburgh), Fabric Workshop and Museum (Philadelphia), Magnolia Editions (Oakland, CA), Manufacture des Gobelins (Paris), and Diözesanmuseum Freising (Germany).”
Smith continued, “When Claudia Gould of the Shaker Museum asked me to present objects made by the Shakers from their collection along with my work, I knew to show my blankets along with works on paper, and a photogravure by Lothar Osterburg.”
Smith has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions worldwide including over 25 museum exhibitions. Her work has been featured at five Venice Biennales, including the 2017 edition. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2017 was awarded the title of Honorary Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Previously, Smith was recognized in 2006 by TIME Magazine as one of the “TIME 100: The People Who Shape Our World.” Other awards include the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture in 2000; the 2009 Edward MacDowell Medal; the 2010 Nelson A. Rockefeller Award, Purchase College School of the Arts; the 2013 U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts, conferred by Hillary Clinton; and the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center, among others. She is an adjunct professor at New York University and Columbia University.
Shaker Outpost: Kiki Smith’s Visiting will be open to the public Friday, October 9 through Sunday, December 20 with an opening reception with the artist on Saturday, October 10 from 3:00-6:00 p.m. Exhibition hours are Friday and Saturday: 10:00 a.m-5:00 p.m.; and Sunday 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. For more information on the exhibition and shop, visit shakermuseum.us.
Shaker Outpost is made possible by the Buddy Taub Foundation. Shaker Museum's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
About Shaker Museum
Shaker Museum is home to the world’s most substantial collection of Shaker material culture and design, featuring over 18,000 objects as well as a library and archives that trace the aesthetics, ingenuity, faith, and history of the Shakers. Since its founding in 1950, the museum has evolved from a single collector’s personal passion to document Shaker life and history into a vital center for preservation, scholarship, and creative exploration. Construction is now underway for the museum’s new, permanent home in Chatham, NY, a world-class space designed by Selldorf Architects. This new facility will not only house the museum’s permanent collection but will also introduce visitors to a dynamic program of contemporary exhibitions and public events, rethinking what it means to steward Shaker history in the 21st century.
Beyond Chatham, Shaker Museum maintains collections storage in Old Chatham, NY; offers special exhibitions and community programming in pop-up spaces around Columbia County; and stewards the landmark Mount Lebanon Shaker Village in New Lebanon, NY. Explore the collection and learn more about ongoing projects, news, and events at shakermuseum.us.