Over the past five years, the initiative has worked with Rokeby Museum and Middlebury College Special Collections (Vermont); Albuquerque Museum Photography Archives and 516 ARTS (New Mexico); Tulane University Special Collections and The Historic New Orleans Collection (Louisiana); Birr Vintage Week and Birr Historical Society (County Offaly, Ireland) where the project was recognized with a National Heritage Award; Wilson Museum at the Southern Vermont Arts Center and four rural historical societies (Vermont); and MERZ Gallery and Dumfries and Galloway Museums (Scotland); and the Henry Sheldon Museum and Stewart Research Center and Archives (Vermont). The initiative has produced ten exhibitions and eight books and worked with over 100 artists.

Doing this work, we have found that contemporary art allows for complex histories to be shared and to approach potentially controversial topics in a non-polarizing way. Artists offer novel perspectives on historical sites, archives, and collections. They are drawn to neglected histories and are astute at developing strategies for sharing those histories with a range of audiences.

The roundtable "Art Meets History: Using Contemporary Art to Engage with History" will present a 360 degree view of the initiative. Founder and 2021-2022 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Curatorial Fellow Ric Kasini Kadour will present an overview of the project, the theory behind it and its benefits and challenges. Jill Hartke, Archivist at the Albuquerque Museum's Photography Archives, will speak about her experience as a photography archivist working with artists and curators for two exhibitions at 516 ARTS in New Mexico. Teresa Cribelli, Associate Professor of History at the University of Alabama, will speak about participating in an Artist Lab and on using history to inform artwork in her project, "Dangerous Landscapes: Legacies of Nineteenth-Century Progress in the Age of Climate Change", that is done in collaboration with Allison Grant. Artist duo EveNSteve will speak about working with Art Meets History on researching history from the artists' perspective and about how their artwork brought histories from Old Stone House in Brownington, Vermont, Pest House Cemetery in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburgh, Vermont to international film festivals. A lively discussion will follow brief remarks by the panelists.

The roundtable will be of interest to public historians looking for innovative ways to engage audiences around complex histories; archivists looking to engage their collections for the public; and history teachers looking for new tools.