Shaker cradles for adults? Frances McDormand explores care and community

On a Thursday afternoon in late summer, Frances McDormand, the actress, and Suzanne Bocanegra, a conceptual artist, were testing a Shaker cradle for adults. The display of these little-known pieces of furniture, which they put together for the Shaker Museum’s pop-up gallery, was days after the opening at the Kinderhook Knitting Mill – a converted historic space in Columbia County, NY

McDormand climbed into the beautiful, coffin-sized, lidless wooden box — one of several along with a baby crib and rocking chairs on display. She was lying on her back with her arms crossed over her chest. Her posture was dying, her mind alert.

“It’s too rough,” she told Bocanegra of her friend’s rocking technique as a soothing soundtrack (composed by David Lang) of Shaker-inspired lullabies played. “Try to pay attention to the music.” Bocanegra slowed her cradle and McDormand nodded, a smile crossing her face. She sighed. “Lying in here like this — you just feel very safe,” she said.

“Hands to work, hearts to God,” the oft-used Shaker motto, applies to everything from farming and cooking to the emotionally demanding responsibilities of elder care. Because they were celibate, the Shakers did not have many infants around – although there were some older children who came as new members joined. So the large cradles they used to comfort older adults in hospitals were more common than those for babies. And there were plenty of elderly people to care for in Shaker communities due to the remarkable longevity of this hard-working, health-conscious sect.

“People continued to rule as they got older, and young people turned to their elders for advice,” said McDormand, who once performed in a show inspired by early Shaker spirituals with the Wooster Group, New York’s experimental theater company.

When she first saw a Shaker cradle in a book of photographs, something clicked. “They put so much energy into the beautiful things they made, and they were ready to comfort their people when the time came,” she said. She thought about being able to grow old in a caring society and about the regrets she had about not being there for her adoptive parents when they died. She also thought of the time she spent at the bedside of a dying friend.