How to Throw Yourself a DIY Retrospective

(as an artist with a community-based live art practice and a side of polymath)

Hadassah Damien
13 min readJul 12, 2019

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I curated a DIY retrospective of my artwork, and it was awesome. Here’s how you can do it too.

June 21–23, 2019 I showed a retrospective of my creative cultural production to date. I’m newly 40 and I wanted to take stock of the output of my community-based practice, as a live performing artist, and as a writer. I hoped to find patterns and perhaps another part of my story. And, crucially, I had the time and resources to make it happen.

Photo of Lair Fera gallery installation by the artist

So many friends said “I’m taking this idea!” — Good! Do yourself the favor of an introspective retrospective time. Below are the steps I took, takeaways, and photos of the process. Keep scrolling to see the curatorial statement and, of course, community thank-yous!

To see documentation of the shows: Retro-speculative/spectacular/spective, check out the archive here, or check out the Catalog at this link with a Full CV To Date, at itself is a mini archive of LGBTQ art and activism.

Photo of Lair Fera gallery installation by the artist

STEP 1: Make stuff and keep it.

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Hadassah Damien

design strategist & facilitator // economics researcher @rffearlessmoney // progressive technologist // performer