Archival Alchemy®

Unfortunately, many people move through life without fulfillment; fewer individuals know how to preserve the stories of how they lived. As a certified archivist and an interdisciplinary artist, I founded Archival Alchemy® to help seekers, visionaries and creatives to remember their essence and transform their lives, while building an intentional legacy. We all have the potential to be the archivists of our own experience*!

My three realms of service are expressed with verbs instead of nouns to emphasize that archives are NOT supposed to collect dust while remaining inactive. This is a practice that must be applied, and it requires YOU to also do the work alongside me.

Below are the routes we can take together, informed by my own proprietary framework:

I. Coaching
Explorations in the Archival Alchemy Laboratory℠ are rooted in self-transformation whether you are an individual seeking to develop or transform your career, your creative practice, or your overall lifestyle. Through my foundational nine-step archival mapmaking process, you can move closer towards the life that you were called to live.

II. Consulting
Archival Alchemy® guides institutions to utilize their history for strategic problem solving, planning, and visioning. Indivisibly serving as an archivist/artist is my strength. I am versed in established archival methods to ensure sustainability, but utilize creativity to showcase why archives are even kept.

III. Creating
Archival Alchemy® also creates/produces artistic/archival initiatives (e.g. programming, performances, presentations) that could interact with a variety of projects, be exhibited in wide-ranging settings, and connect with diverse audiences.

Please contact me about my services so that I can clarify anything that I’ve shared here, and to further discuss how I could support you! I can work remotely or on-site, across the USA or around the world. To follow Archival Alchemy’s projects, please connect with me on Instagram!

I received a bachelor’s degree in Writing and Literature from Naropa University via Hampton University. I received a master’s degree in Library and Information Science with an Archives Certificate from Pratt Institute; I hold a Digital Archives Specialist Certificate from the Society of American Archivists, and I am a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists. I have also held traditional archivist positions with the Whitney Museum of American Art, The New York Public Library, the Associated Press Corporate Archives, and the Weeksville Heritage Center. In 2011, I self-published my first archival text, somethymes grief goes for a walk. In 2013, I co-curated The Finding Aid: Black Women at the Intersection of Art and Archiving event at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. I was a Create Change fellow with The Laundromat Project, a member of the EmergeNYC incubator, as well as a MoCADA creator in residence. In 2017, I founded Archival Alchemy® in New York City.

*This letter written by Jean Hines, a librarian and friend, inspired the name of my business.