The greatest artifacts in historical exhibits can bring the viewer close to a far-away moment. The “Legacies” exhibit at the New-York Historical Society has quite another effect. The textured, colorful, digital, sculptural, and painterly works assembled in the exhibit possess a contemporary spirit as much as they reflect on America’s history of slavery.

And so the opening reception on Wednesday was not about peering at documents through half-spectacles, but rather immersing oneself in a vibrant artistic community presided over by the show’s curator, a mother, leader, and fierce advocate for black artists, Lowery Stokes Sims.

There were patrons, many of whom became acquainted with Ms. Simms through her lead role at the Studio Museum in Harlem. Then there were artists, and all the friends of the artists.

Judy Blaylock admired the piece by Kerry James Marshall, in which blown-up photographs of people watching lynchings have been placed in lockets drawn on a canvas. “It’s horrific, but at the same time it’s brilliant,” Ms. Blaylock said.

The project was a chance for artists to come to terms with history. “What I figured out is that lynching was more about killing the spirit of rebellion than the person,” artist Eli Kince said.

The husband-wife artist duo Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry explored the Topsy Turvey doll in their multimedia piece. It was an idea that Ms. Tarry had wanted to pursue five years ago, when she saw such a doll – which is a white doll on one end and a black doll on the other – at the summer home of her husband’s family in Silver Lake, Wis. At the time, it didn’t make much of an impression on her husband. But then he rediscovered the doll last summer, and was reminded of his wife’s original idea. The result, along with the work of more than 30 other artists, is on view at the society through January 7.

agordon@nysun.com