Wabanaki Summer Market to be held at Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village
Passamaquoddy artist Geo Neptune sold their wares at the Wabanaki Summer Market in 2025. (Rory Sweeting/Staff Writer)
Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village will host dozens of artists and crafters from the Wabanaki Confederacy on Saturday, Aug. 22.
Michael Graham, director of the Shaker Village, said the event honors the relationship between two of Maine’s oldest crafting traditions, which in the present day comes in the form of mutual and parallel paths of cultural preservation. The Shakers, he said, admire the production of Wabanaki crafts as a reflection of the Wabanaki people and culture, and the Wabanaki Summer Market, which has been running since 2008, is a way of supporting the continuation of those crafting traditions.
The market will feature multiple generations of Wabanaki artists, with some families having their fourth generation of artists in attendance. The Griffith, Love, Neptune, and Soctomah families will each have multiple artists at the market, including some who have been featured at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor. In addition, the Burnaburnuskek Singers and Drummers will hold a traditional drumming and singing performance at noon.
Graham said the market would not just feature traditional styles and forms, but also contemporary expressions of Wabanaki art. The work of younger generations, he said, includes new designs and forms, as well as different types of material that have not traditionally been used by Wabanaki artists
“That’s exciting to see,” said Graham, “how it’s taking to see a new turn into the 21st century.”
The market will be held at the village at 707 Shaker Road in New Gloucester from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Attendance is free.
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Tagged: shaker village, Wabanaki
Rory, an experienced reporter from western Massachusetts, joined the Maine Trust for Local News in October 2024. He is a community reporter for Windham, Raymond, Casco, Bridgton, Naples, Standish, Gray,. More by Rory Sweeting
