PITTSFIELD, Mass. — In "Swept: This Work I Will Do," artist and broom squire Cate Richards presents a series of broom-inspired sculptures alongside Shaker brooms, connecting Shakers to contemporary craft practices and exploring the Shakers' influence on American craft and art today.

 

"In Swept: This Work I Will Do" (the subtitle is from a Shaker hymn), Richards makes sculptural objects using established broom making techniques in a discursive manner to explore issues of craft, social inequity, environment, and other topics. Richards' works are made of materials both expected (broomcorn, twine, and wood) and unconventional (plastic and metal). 

 

According to a press release, these anachronistic sculptures, juxtaposed against original Shaker brooms, offer revealing insight on the history of American broom making, highlight contemporary broom making practices, and explore the broom as a spiritual object.

 

"Swept: This Work I Will Do" opens in the Chace Gallery on June 17 with a reception and talk for Hancock Shaker Village members; the exhibition opens to the public with regular admission on June 18.

 

Cate Richards is a queer artist, jeweler, broomsquire, and educator currently living on occupied Ho-Chunk, Sac & Fox, and Kickapoo lands, now also called Madison, Wis. In the summer of 2021, they were a resident at MASS MoCA, where they researched the history of New England broom production. Richards has been awarded several travel grants for craft research, including funding for fieldwork in Michigan's Upper Peninsula to study the copper mining culture of the area, and to travel to the Foxfire Museum and Appalachian Heritage Center in Georgia to learn broom making. Richards has exhibited at Abel Contemporary in Stoughton, Wis., EatMetal Inc. in Hoboken, NJ, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Wash., Lillstreet Arts Center in Chicago, and the Gallery im Körnerpark, Berlin.