NEW LEBANON, NY.- In 2016 Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon received a $750,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to fund a wide-ranging project to bring its collections online. The Museum has retained the New York City based web design firm Studio Analogous to create a website that highlights the Museum’s unparalleled collection of Shaker material culture, including objects, publications, and archives.

Two full-time project staff have been working with existing Museum staff and Boston-based freelance photographer John Mulligan to create digital records for the entire collection and to photograph a portion of the objects. The resulting website will allow users to explore the collection in depth and discover connections between objects, archival material, photographs, individual Shakers, and the various Shaker communities.

“We are honored and excited to collaborate with Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon. The Shakers were the original makers and an amazing window into business, technology, and social justice. They couldn’t be more relevant today and everyone deserves to experience their story,” said Fanny Krivoy, founder and creative director at Analogous.

Studio Analogous has worked with the Inter-American Development Bank, the Museum of the City of New York, Maimonides Medical Center, Real Simple, National Immigration Forum, and a number of other not-for-profit, cultural, retail, and financial services clients. They are leaders in the emerging field of inclusive strategy and design, a practice that seeks to make technology accessible and engaging for people with the widest set of abilities.

“Inclusion was a core value of the Shakers, who sought to create equal opportunities for their fellow believers regardless of gender, race, class, or physical ability. Shaker Museum | Mount Lebanon is proud to partner with a firm that incorporates this value into their business practices,” said Lacy Schutz, the Museum’s executive director.

The website is expected to launch in Spring 2018 and will be added to and enhanced as the project continues.