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 develop the practice of remembering, transform their lives/work, while living/leaving a 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 accessed, 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 cultural institutions and corporations to utilize their history for strategic problem solving, planning, and visioning. Being able to appear indivisibly as an archivist/artist is my strength as a consultant. 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 projects (e.g. public programs, performances and speeches) that could interact with a variety of initiatives, 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.