Artists in the Archives

Local history museums, archives, and collections are vital to building healthy communities and to anchoring our understanding of the world around us in the place where we live, work, and play. Collage artists have unique skills that are particularly useful in our historical moment. They understand that something beautiful, something meaningful can come from chaos; that destruction is easier than creation, which takes patience, precision, thoughtfulness, and intuition. What happens when we bring those two groups together?

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Stewart-Swift Research Center, the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History invited an international network of collage artists to engage with historic material in the archive and to create a folio of collage prints that reflect on the idea of community in a 21st century world. Under the curatorial direction of Kolaj Institute Director Ric Kasini Kadour and with the support of Stewart-Swift Research Center Archivist Eva Garcelon-Hart and Henry Sheldon Museum Collections Associate Taylor Rossini, the Museum engaged with twenty-three artists from seven countries to make twenty-four collage prints referencing history material in the collection.

The book, Artists in the Archive, contains artworks and commentary as well as an extensive essay by Ric Kasini Kadour about the project and its context. "Community, Archives, and Artists" takes a broad look at the challenges to communities in 21st century America. It considers the role local history plays in our communities and considers the evolution of history museums, archives, and collections over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. The essay reflects on the role artists can play in the interpretation and presentation of historic material in light of this history.