CRADLED

Presented by Make Hauser & Wirth

20 November – 4 January

Downtown Los Angeles

Presented by Make Hauser & Wirth, ‘CRADLED’ opens 20 November at the gallery’s Downtown Los Angeles location. Conceived and curated by artist Suzanne Bocanegra and actor/producer Frances McDormand in collaboration with Shaker Museum (Chatham, NY), the exhibition expands on its 2024 staging in upstate New York. The Los Angeles presentation of ‘CRADLED’ explores—through objects, sound, and activations—the Shakers’ embrace of caregiving and community from cradle to grave. ‘CRADLED’ invites visitors into an environment where they are immersed, however briefly, in a vision of life shaped by the Shaker ethos of devotion made manifest in communal industry and care.

‘CRADLED’ will be on view Saturdays and Sundays through 4 January 2026.

Central to the exhibition are Shaker cradles, crafted for infants and adults alike, designed to provide comfort at life’s beginning and at its end. From their arrival in the United States in 1774 and through more than two centuries of piety, the Shakers’ celibate communities often sheltered more elders than children, thus developing a deeply rooted culture of end-of-life care. Rarely seen beyond traditional Shaker circles, adult-sized cradles, striking in their simplicity, embody the group’s values of compassion, dignity and support at every stage of life.

The exhibition, inspired and informed by Bocanegra’s and McDormand’s research at Shaker Museum, features four of these historic Shaker cradles, on loan from Shaker museums spanning the country, from New England to Kentucky. Each cradle is paired with a tableau of Shaker rocking chairs and woven baskets filled with mending projects, offering visitors an opportunity to take part in the literal and figurative act of mending, an activity at the heart of Shaker values: to sit, to repair, to create.

Honoring the Shakers’ connection between song and caregiving, Bocanegra and McDormand collaborated with composer David Lang and sound editors Skip Lievsay and Paul Umstrom on an end-of-life lullaby that resonates throughout the exhibition. Lang adapted the text for his ‘last lullaby’ from a Shaker spiritual about eternal life.

Opening Activation

‘CRADLED’ includes a reproduction of an adult-sized cradle in which special guests will be gently rocked by Bocanegra and McDormand during the opening activation on 20 November. That evening, singers from the Los Angeles–based volunteer choir Angeles Chorale will contribute to Lang’s lullaby and the exhibition’s soundscape.

In collaboration with Manuela LA, Shaker Lemon Pie will be served to visitors at the opening. Pies will also be available for purchase and featured on the restaurant’s menu during the run of the exhibition.

Press Release

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About Make Hauser & Wirth

Make at Hauser & Wirth is dedicated to contemporary making and the crafted object, committed to showcasing a range of the world’s best emerging and established artist-makers. Led by Manuela Wirth, the international program includes exhibitions, residencies and meaningful collaborations with external curators, institutions and craft organizations. Make is a natural extension of the wider Hauser & Wirth gallery ethos—embracing craft heritage, provenance, sustainability, and the value of emotional engagement with the handmade. Since launching in 2018, Make has presented work by over 80 artist-makers and provided valuable insights into the diverse processes and rich narratives of their practices.

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, offers special exhibitions and community programming in Kinderhook and the stewards the landmark Mount Lebanon Shaker Village in New Lebanon. Explore the collection and learn more about ongoing projects, news, and events at shakermuseum.us.

About the Shakers

Officially known as the United Society of Shakers, in 1774 Ann Lee, the charismatic, illiterate daughter of a blacksmith, led a small group of followers from Manchester, England, to upstate New York. From this foothold, Shakers established communities that spread across the eastern half of the US for over two centuries. The group sought to perfect society through hard work, communal living, gender and racial equality, pacifism, celibacy and separation from worldly affairs. Guided by core values of conviction, integrity, inclusion and innovation, the Shakers were successful entrepreneurs known for their various manufacturing enterprises, their creation of beautiful objects, and their significant impact on modern design and architecture.