High Concept Labs Announces Events Celebrating Its 15 Year Anniversary

High Concept Labs, an artist residency and support program, has announced its fifteenth anniversary. A year-long anniversary celebration will feature artist-driven and community-focused events, performances, and showcases across the city, and build on HCL's history of bringing artists and audiences together around the creative process.  

“HCL's 15-year anniversary is a chance for people across Chicago to come see what our laboratory is all about,” says HCL co-founder and board chair Kevin Simmons. “When connected with audiences through our services, HCL Artists in Residence from Chicago and around the world are empowered to achieve creative breakthroughs, innovative programs, and uncover new experimental, conceptual, and genre-defying artistic projects that can transform our communities.”

Since its founding in 2009, HCL has facilitated more than 300 artist residencies across genres and disciplines—showcasing Chicago-based artists to broad audiences, and bringing artists from around the world to Chicago. Past HCL residents have included co-founders of the Emmy-award winning Manual Cinema; Grammy-nominated Spektral Quartet; renowned national-touring footwork crew The Era;  inveterate Afro-Feminist performance group Honey Pot Performance; and Chicago choreographic mainstays such as Molly Shanahan and 2024 US Artist Fellowship Awardee Erin Kilmurray, among many others. Most recently, HCL was instrumental in bringing Jeff-nominated “Tebas Land” to the stage in 2022.

Today, HCL operates from  Pilsen-based Mana Contemporary arts center, which houses the organization's flagship Artist in Residence program—a 12-month residency that provides artists with a stipend, no-cost studio space, and tailored curatorial, development, and marketing support. HCL also presents Open Labs for sharing and testing ideas; curated gatherings; and showcases—all of which will be offered during HCL's anniversary celebration.

Aquil Charton, HCL alumnus and Co-Director for HCL says “There is an art to holistically caring for artists and their creative processes. At HCL this practice is our focus, and it is reflected in the community we have cultivated over the past fifteen years.”

The 15-year anniversary also kicks off HCL's new individual donor fundraising program, with a goal of raising $125,000 to increase the organization's pipeline and support capabilities for a robust and diverse range of artists and projects.

HCL managing director Angee Lennard notes “Artists thrive when they're equipped with the time and space to ideate, iterate, risk- take, and collaborate. Meeting our $125,000 anniversary fundraising goal means we will be able to continue offering long-format residencies that enable pivotal career growth for the artists who benefit from our programs.”

Donations for HCL's anniversary will also support the organization's collaboration with Unfolding Disability Futures (UDF), a grassroots collective of disabled, sick, and neurodivergent performing artists. In partnership with UDF, HCL plans to launch new “Art/Access Labs,” quarterly artist convenings fostering a vibrant disabled artist ecosystem for peer learning and resource sharing.

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