Yolanda Cesta Cursach Montilla

Yolanda Cesta Cursach Montilla (she/ella) is an advocate and resource for artists developing and presenting multidisciplinary work in a range of institutions and entrepreneurial environments, US and international. She is Artistic Director of High Concept Labs, a residency and presenting organization which is in Joint Residency with the Monira Foundation at Mana Contemporary Chicago. Her independent curation focus is interdisciplinary artists in Ibero-Latin America, France, Sub-Sahara Africa, Japan, and Australasia; Indigeneity; and Disability Culture and Aesthetics. 

Yolanda serves on the Artist Advisory Board for the Monira Foundation. She is Curator of Elevate Chicago Dance, produced by Chicago Dancemakers Forum (CDF); and Curator of Destinos Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, produced by Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA). She is an Artistic Associate with FACE Foundation, for the French US Exchange in Dance (FUSED) and Contemporary Theater. Networks include: Practitioner with Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT); Member, Creative & Independent Producer Alliance (CIPA); Co-commissioner, National Performance Network (NPN); Facilitator, Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University in Tallahassee (MANCC). She is former Curator of Performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art (1997-2018). She studied under Lloyd Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph in the PhD program in Political Science at The University of Chicago, and holds a B.A. Summa Cum Laude in Political Science and Romance Languages from Syracuse University. Yolanda is a recipient of the Paul Harris Fellow Lifetime Award for Humanitarian Work by Rotary International, a native of Rome, Italy, and grew up in Madrid, Spain.