Pittsfield and Hancock — At a press conference on Thursday, September 22, representatives from Hancock Shaker Village announced plans for renovations to its visitor center.
The visitor center is located at the western entrance of the 750-acre site and serves as its primary public entrance. It encompasses several buildings including a cafe, offices, and an exhibition area.
According to a press release issued by organization representative Carolyn McDaniel, the new visitor center will include open storage for Shaker artifacts, a vault, a library, and a reading room, along with several other enhancements to increase programming. The architectural firm chosen for the project is TSKP x IKD of Boston.
Hancock Shaker Village Director Nathaniel Silver and former Director Jennifer Trainer Thompson were part of the press conference along with TSKP x IKD company partners Yugon Kim and company principal Tomomi Itakura. “It was a long and extensive search for us to find a company to help us to change our visitor’s center in a way that will provide a transformative experience for visitors to Hancock Shaker Village,” Silver said. “This renovation will allow us to give visitors the kind of introduction and background to the village that they need and deserve. It will also allow us to enhance the parallel collections that we have here and protect them for the future.”
Silver said that TSKP x IKD has extensive experience working with museums and with projects based in the cultural sector. “In many ways, this is a realization of a dream,” Thompson said. “This renovation will help to create a proper storage area for our collection for the next 100 years. It will also make the visitor experience more welcoming and more adaptive to our times.”
“The historical collection here is unparalleled,” Itakura said. “We’re just honored to have this opportunity to have the chance to present the collection in such a way that is inspiring and engaging.”
Silver said that there are “roughly 22,000 objects in [their] collection that range widely from furniture to clothes and textiles.” Silver continued, “I am struck not only by the diversity of objects in our collection but also the incredible quality and level of preservation. We want to find ways to give visitors a full picture of the panorama of what the collection includes, and in such a way that it does justice to it.”
When Silver was asked if the project would mean disruptions to the Village’s operations, he said that “there are no real plans right now for interruptions.” He said that there was no set timeline for the project itself. However, in McDaniel’s press release, she wrote that construction on the project is scheduled to start in fall 2023, with anticipated completion in summer or fall 2024.
Silver said that there is no set financial estimate of how much the total project would cost, but that the organization would have to apply for permits with Pittsfield as part of the construction process.
