A Small Show Worth the Drive

There is a small show in Chatham right now that is absolutely worth going out of your way for. (And not just because I have a special connection to the artist…more on that later.)

Shaker Outpost, at 4 Depot Square, is a pop-up space run by the Shaker Museum while its permanent home is under construction (two blocks away, scheduled to open in 2027). The museum holds the world’s most comprehensive collection of Shaker objects, more than 18,000 pieces. For this pop-up, they invited illustrator and author Maira Kalman to curate a selection of pieces from the collection that resonated with her.

The front room is part general store, part gallery, and everything is for sale. There are practical and fanciful objects chosen by Maira herself, alongside pieces from the continuing M&Co collection — the design studio founded by Tibor Kalman in the 1980s: watches, embroidered socks, a nightshirt, stationery, scissors, and other objects that feel unmistakably Maira. Friends contributed pieces too, including potholders by Frances McDormand and a handful of other handmade objects.

There was also a perfectly square white tray designed by Maira and her son Alex under the M&Co brand. As soon as I saw it, I loved it. So simple, so Shaker, so me. I splurged on the tray and the potholders.

Seeing the M&Co watches made me unexpectedly happy. For those of you who are new to my Substack, my first graphic design job was at M&Co’s design studio in the early 1990s, working on Benetton’s Colors magazine under the direction of Maira’s husband, the legendary artist and designer, Tibor Kalman. At the time, I had no idea how much the experience would shape me, but I knew I was lucky.

The art department was a large U-shaped desk lined with Mac Quadras running Quark 3.0 (If you know, you know. If you don’t, it was the only design program any of us used back then – long before Adobe, Canva, or Figma). Tibor would roll his chair around the room, stop behind each of us to comment on whatever he saw on our monitors, then move on to the next designer. It was there I learned the difference between typefaces like Franklin Gothic Condensed and the then-new Avenir, and how a tiny adjustment in letter spacing could completely change how a sentence felt when you read it. My job was to keep the typography consistent across four languages. But more than that, it was where I learned to see. The best design almost doesn’t look designed, It just feels inevitable. Tibor’s wife Maira was in and out of the studio in those days. I’ve been a huge fan of her work ever since, and read every one of her books to my kids when they were little. Ooh-La-La (Max in Love) was a favorite.

The back room of the pop-up is where Maira curated objects from the museum’s collection – smaller objects such as gloves, socks, tools and larger pieces like wooden egg trays, a hat mold, a broom. Shaker design is so simple, but so exactly right. Maira’s own prints, inspired by historic Shaker photographs, hang alongside them.

Maira once said of Shaker design: “After seeing their work, you want to run home and throw out everything you have. You want to edit your life. You only want what is essential.”

Standing in that back room, I understood exactly what she meant. Elizabeth, who had spent the better part of an hour showing me around the Outpost, told me I'd just missed someone else who had worked at M&Co. A lot of alumni had been showing up, she said.

I believe it. I’ll be back.

Shaker Outpost, 4 Depot Square, Chatham, NY.

Maira Kalman’s exhibition closes July 5, but the front-room general store will remain open. The back gallery will continue with a series of artist-curated exhibitions drawn from the Shaker Museum collection. Next up is ceramicist Paula Greif, followed by Kiki Smith in October.