We are living
archives.
I grew up in Northern Virginia, 20 min from Washington. Museums, history, archives, libraries with the nation’s most treasured assets were at my front door. The idea of preservation is simply common sense to me; it natural, its narrative, its ethnographic, it is living life.
In the spring of 2005 while a graduate student at NYU, I was chosen to work with the late Katherine Dunham as an archivist working alongside her in her home processing papers, films/documentaries, reviews, manuscripts and photographs for two collections. The Library of Congress’s, Performing Arts Encyclopedia – Katherine Dunham Collection and Ms. Dunham’s Museum in East St. Louis. During my time with Ms. Dunham almost up until her passing at the age of nearly 96 years old in 2006, I was reminded of the true legacy of Ms. Dunham as an educator, activist, anthropologist, dancer, choreographer and writer as she handled her precious and historical materials with care.
My training in both anthropology and dance cultivated a great understanding of how dance is one’s culture, that understanding connections between dance and culture is integral and that understanding dance is being able to understand self. My interest in Dunham’s work and legacy goes beyond measure and her work as an archivists is about the celebration of culture and sharing it with tomorrow. Dunham’s legacy lives on.
Katherine Dunham Archives + Library of Congress
Archival Work, 2006
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Bill T. Jones/Live Arts – Google Culture Institute
Archival Work, 2009 – 2011
Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation
Archival Work, 2008
photo credit, Revelations, spectacle du Alvin Ailey city center theater. Festival d’Avignon,1977,Fernand Michaud, BnF, no copyright-other known legal restrictions via https://pro.europeana.eu/person/marijke-everts
My archival offerings are a result of my archival experiences and projects through the years coupled with industry best practices. I am not just an archivist, but a preserver of culture, and anthropologist who understands the value if cultural material, documentation, personal narrative and voice.
- Circulation Control & Management
- Collection Development
- Consulting & Strategy
- Content Discovery & Acquisition
- Content Licensing & Monetization
- Database Development
- Data Migration
- Digital Archives
- Digital Asset Management
- Exhibitions
- Metadata Tagging
- Photogrammetry & 3D Canning
- Oral Histories & Ethnographic Fieldwork
- Policies & Procedures
- Preservation & Conservation
- Processing & Cataloging
- Research & Reference
