Transformation through Purpose, Preservation, and Activation℠
Greetings! My name is Joyce LeeAnn 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 am 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 my multidimensional process that’s rooted in self-preservation with others through the projects I produce and the services I provide.
Newsletter
Services
Archival Alchemy® supports creatives and cultural institutions to access the transformative power of archives through coaching, consultations, creative work, and collaborations. Being able to serve indivisibly as an archivist and artist is my strength. I am versed in established archival practices to ensure sustainability, but utilize creativity to showcase why archives are even kept.
Explorations in the Archival Alchemy Laboratory℠ are rooted in self-preservation, self-mastery, and self-empowerment in order to transform yourself and find fulfillment in your purpose. Whether you are seeking to develop or transform your career, your creative practice, or your overall lifestyle, through this process you can move closer towards the life you were created and called to live.
Archival Alchemy® also produces innovative creative work that portrays the power of archives. The universality of the subject matter allows my projects to interact with a variety of initiatives, to be showcased in many different settings, and to connect with a wide audience. I am currently developing a collaborative project that transmutes archival processing into performance art. Through exploring the concept of embodying archives, I aim to demonstrate how self-empowerment and self-preservation can support the healing and transformation of ourselves and others.
Please contact me about my services and/or 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 Instagram!
About
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 worked for the Weeksville Heritage Center, the Associated Press Corporate Archives, The New York Public Library, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. 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 am a House of Noire gem; 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.