I am thrilled to be starting 2026 as a Research Fellow at Historic Deerfield Library to use the Stephen L. Wolf Collection. “Wolf built the premier, private library on the topics of paint, varnish, and color theory dating from the sixteenth century onward resulting in around 1,500 titles.” So looking forward to delving into books on COLOR. Thanks so much for the opportunity, Historic Deerfield.
'anything but drab' was installed in the former Shaker Office building at Fruitlands Museum, in conjunction with the exhibition 'a good many hands.'
Thank you Christie Jackson, Senior Curator; Fruitlands Museum | The Trustees; Hannah Costner, Exhibitions & Catalogue Designer; Kate Wool, photographer.
Catalogue available for purchase online via Fruitlands HERE.
Please join us on Monday October 27 from 7pm until 8:30pm for three 10 minute artist presentations. I’m calling mine ‘here from there,’ aka how did seeing Tom Davenport’s 1974 Documentary The Shakers lead to a five year research project?
The event is sponsored by the Williamstown Cultural District and will be held at Images Cinema, 50 Spring Street, Williamstown, MA.
Please join Curator Christie Jackson and myself on Saturday October 18th at 2:30pm for a ‘Colorful Conversation’ at Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, MA. We will discuss the role that color–paints & dyes–had in making these two exhibitions.
We will view the two exhibitions currently on view at Fruitlands Museum, ‘a good many hands‘ (curated by Jackson) and ‘anything but drab’ (installation by Brece Honeycutt).
Fruitlands Museum, 102 Prospect Hill Road, Harvard, MA.
Photographs by Kate Wool
If you are strolling in downtown Williamstown MA this autumn, look up for the Eyes on Art Town Banners!
Thrilled to be included with so many talented artists. Click HERE to view all the banners.
Eyes on Art Town banner exhibition is a collaborative project of The Town of Williamstown, Williamstown Cultural District and Williamstown Chamber of Commerce. The banner exhibition is made possible with grant funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council
Shaker Programming at Fruitlands Museum, July – November 2025
The following are programming events related to ‘a good many hands’ and anything but drab. Some listings include a link to register for the event and others will be listed soon. Trustees members are either free or have a reduced fee for the events.
Curator’s Tour: Christie Jackson, Senior Curator
Saturday, August 9, 12:00pm; Curator’s Tour: ‘a good many hands’ – The Trustees of Reservations
Friday, August 15, 12:00pm; Curator’s Tour: ‘a good many hands’ – The Trustees of Reservations
Friday, September 12, 12:00pm; Curator’s Tour: ‘a good many hands’ – The Trustees of Reservations
Friday, October 3, 12:00pm; Curator’s Tour: ‘a good many hands’ – The Trustees of Reservations
Ever wonder how objects are chosen for exhibitions? Or what discoveries are made during the process of putting an exhibit together? Join Senior Curator Christie Jackson for a behind-the-scenes view of the exhibit ‘a good many hands’ with special access to objects and the stories behind them.
Drop-in Bookmaking workshop
Saturday, August 9, 12pm – 3pm
Drop-in Bookmaking Workshop – The Trustees of Reservations
Can you make a book from one sheet of paper? Come find out in this afternoon drop-in workshop. Join artist Brece Honeycutt to learn how to make a simple book from one sheet of paper. Brece is behind the current art installation, anything but drab, exploring Shaker use of color.
Drop-in dye demonstration
Saturday, September 20, 11am – 3pm
Outside Shaker Office
This is during the Fruitlands Museum Craft Fair. No registration needed, ongoing throughout the day.
The fee for the day includes admission to the Craft Fair and to the museum buildings.
Historically, Shakers dyed their clothes a myriad of colors—blues, pinks, reds, purples and browns. Artist Brece Honeycutt will be dipping into dyepots and pulling out vibrant shades of indigo/blue, madder/red and goldenrod/yellow. Stop by to see how color is made from roots and flowers.
Lecture: Christie Jackson, Senior Curator
“Pretty in Pink: Shaker’s Use of Pink and other Stories of the Color Through the Centuries.”
Wednesday, September 10, 6:30pm
Registration information forthcoming.
The recent cinematic explosion of Barbie brought the color pink to the forefront of fashion and culture. This, though, is not the first time that pink has had its heyday. Senior Curator Christie Jackson will examine the vivid hue’s appeal over the centuries, with a special focus on its use in the Shaker Office at Fruitlands Museum where the prominence of pink was a surprising discovery made during a recent paint analysis of this historic building.
In Dialogue: A Colorful Conversation Between Artist Brece Honeycuttt and Curator Christie Jackson
Saturday, October 18, 2pm
Registration information forthcoming.
Join us for a conversation between artist Brece Honeycutt and Senior Curator Christie Jackson as they discuss the role that color had in their most recent projects. Both have been on a journey of discovery into the history of color, and will share stories about the Shakers and their use of color.
Fruitlands Museum, 102 Prospect Hill Road, Harvard, MA. Open Thursday to Sunday 10am to 4pm.
Just as nineteenth century Shakers used contemporary paint manuals and pigments, chrome yellow and Prussian blue, they consulted contemporary dye books: Elijah Bemis’ The Dyer’s Companion (New Haven, CT 1815) and Molony’s Masterpiece on wool, silk and cotton dyeing (Lowell, MA 1837).
Dye recipes fill the pages of a mid-19th century Sister’s book from the Harvard Shaker Community. More colors than one can imagine. Dye books speak of possibilities, tantalizing tints of deep dark indigo, rosy reds of madder, geranium scarlet cochineal, dove grey drab and London brown. Dyeing is science, measuring, mixing and timing. Dyeing is days of preparation: grinding, heating, boiling, dipping and dipping, rinsing and more rinsing and finally drying. Color comes at times fast and at others relentlessly slow, and only revealed when the cloth is completely dry.
Painted in layers of watercolors and inks, crisscrossed like a warp and weft or striated light lines streaming into a room, Honeycutt’s accordion book anything but drab sits on a Prussian blue Shaker work table, recalls a bolt of dyed cloth or an unfolded Shaker map and speaks to the root of accordion, accord. Each fold builds on another, joined in unity and harmony, an accordance. Around the room, Shaker umbrella swifts, reels to wind yarn into balls, constructed by Brethren and used by Sisters, further demonstrate the duality, the equality, the accordance.
Four of Honeycutt’s poems accompany the exhibition: anything but drab, we collour, ROYGBIV, and spirt/earth/air/fire. Listen to her read these on Sound cloud, here.
Across from the Shaker Office building on Fruitlands grounds sits the Seasonal Gallery with the exhibition “a good many hands” Shaker Communities Woven through Word, Image and Object curated by Senior Curator Christie Jackson.
Fruitlands Museum, 102 Prospect Hill Road, Harvard, Massachusetts 01451
Thursday through Sunday, 10 AM - 4 PM. Grounds are open dawn to dusk.
anything but drab opens on May 1, 2025 at Fruitlands Museum (Harvard, MA).
“We are also excited to announce that artist Brece Honeycutt is collaborating with Senior Curator Christie Jackson on an installation in the Shaker Office at Fruitlands Museum. Honeycutt’s interest in the temporal and spiritual uses of Shaker color will be explored in her installation, anything but drab. Honeycutt’s installation centers on a large-scale accordion book painted with watercolors and dyes, similar to ones used by the Shakers. The colors on the pages echo Shaker chromatics found on the building’s architectural elements. Brece’s work, and other Shaker objects on display in the Shaker Office, will be in dialogue with the exhibition, a good many hands, on view in the gallery.” from the Trustees of Reservations.
Fruitlands Museum, 102 Prospect Hill Road, Harvard, Massachusetts 01451
Museum Spring hours Thursday through Sunday, 10 AM -4 PM. Grounds are open dawn to dusk.
Thrilled to be presenting at the annual Enfield Shaker Forum, April 25-27, 2025. Prismatic Utopia: researched poetry focuses on the why and how of taking my research regarding the temporal and spiritual uses of color in Shaker Villages and turning specific topics into poetry. The talk will be punctuated by reading of poems relating to Shaker villages, paint colors, dyeing of textiles and objects.
Find information about the Shaker Forum, HERE
The Nomenclature of Colours III currently on view online, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London, England.
View the whole exhibition HERE
madder cochineal annatto sappanwood, 2025, watercolor, ink, threads, photographs, arches paper, 30″ x 30″
It’s that time of year for the annual Colour & Poetry: A Symposium VII Slade School of Fine Art
Friday March 21 2025 via zoom. Registration is free here
Ruth Siddall / Paul Smith / Vaishali Prazmari / Lavinia Harrington / Lujain Tamer-Mansour/ Jordan Verdes / Liz Rideal / Johny Meghames / Rob Kesseler / Jenny Ihn / Scott Brown / Liz Lawes / Sharon Morris/ Yannis Ziogas / Christine Kirubi / Fiona McLees / Roman Sheppard Dawson / Stella Kajombo / Liz Harrington / Jasmir Creed / Lesley Sharpe / Sara Choudhrey / Lucy Mayes / Brece Honeycutt / Tian Rossana Wong/
At 12:30 EST, my talk “collour scarlet on a stormy day” poems from Prismatic Utopia
Looking forward to talking at the upcoming Enfield Shaker Museum Fiber Weekend, March 28-30, 2025.
I will be speaking on texts textures textiles on Friday evening, but there is lots more happening.
For more info on other speakers and programs. Find it HERE.
My grandmother stacked and stored her quilts in the attic. One of my favorite pastimes was unfolding them and looking at their patterns and fabrics. From this process, I learned color theory. A discarded box of one inch quilt squares, a lesson using the drop spindle, a goldenrod field turned into dye; these happenstances led me to construct textiles, research historic texts and produce textures in my sculptures and installations. These interwoven occurrences will be discussed in my evening slideshow talk.
