Sister Drew?

We have discussed a lot of historical facts about the Shakers and their furniture, but what about the Shakers in today's consciousness? I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of Shaker-centric popular culture that is currently available. There are several communities that you can still visit in the Northeast including the original colony at Watervliet as well as Shaker Hancock Village in the Berkshires and Sabbathday Lake in Maine. You can also find similar communities out West. I will try to do a future blog about those communities and what you can find there. Additionally, there are several documentaries available, including a new one, and I will do a future blog on those as well. There has also been some activity lately with regard to planned museums and pop up exhibits that I will blog about as well. In the meantime, the topic of this blog was a completely unexpected pop culture cross over. On December 11, 2020 a full length popular film was released titled The Stand In. It is available for streaming on Prime Video for $6.99. The movie stars Drew Barrymore and is directed by Jamie Babbit. Ms. Barrymore plays Candy Black, a famous comedy actress, who is ordered to do rehab as a result of here outrageous on-set behavior, not to mention "out of control" drug use. She hires her stand-in, also played by Barrymore, to take her place while she retreats to her mansion to explore her true passion...making Shaker furniture. I would characterize it as a not insignificant part of the plot and it was amusing to hear the topic discussed by Ms. Barrymore during the course of a feature film! So while the Shakers have all but disappeared, they are very much staying alive, not only in this project but others we will discuss soon. In the meantime, check out the movie and some of our cool Shaker artifacts.