Archival Alchemy®

Greetings! My name is Joyce LeeAnn Joseph and I am a certified archivist, an interdisciplinary artist, and the founder of Archival Alchemy®. Since I was a little girl, I have organized and taken care of my precious belongings. I’m driven by the process of letting the past inform the present in order to transmute the future. Looking back does not have to be motivated by nostalgia, it can be an interrogation or a reclamation. An invocation of our ancestors. Old documents collecting dust in storage rooms can be reused to advance a purpose. My intention is to share this practice with others through the services I offer.

Archival Alchemy looks forward to supporting cultural institutions, community archives, artists, television and film companies, and private individuals and families. I deliver tailored services for each project based on the specific needs of every client or collaborator.

I provide traditional archival services to support the development, management, and preservation of physical and digital collections. I can advise best practices, teach basic archiving skills, and complete archival processing tasks.

I’m excited about alternative ways to revive and interpret collections. I can assist the production of documentaries by conducting archival research and helping with the licensing process for selected materials. I can also curate archive-related events.

Furthermore, Archival Alchemy will produce innovative artistic projects that portray the transformative power of archives. When presented, these projects can intersect and enhance the initiatives of an organization. I’m currently developing a multimedia and performance project that explores the idea of embodying archives while examining the meaning of home.

Please contact me about rates, availability, and ways to offer your support. I can work remotely or on-site, across the nation or around the world. To follow Archival Alchemy’s projects, please connect with me on social media!

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 worked for the Weeksville Heritage Center, the Associated Press Corporate Archives, and The New York Public Library. 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 have been a Create Change fellow with The Laundromat Project, a member of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics’ EMERGENYC cohort, and an associate artist during the Betty’s Daughter Arts Collaborative’s Body Ecology intensive. 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.