High Concept Laboratories (HCL) announces 2023 Artists in Residence: Sofía Gabriel del Callejo, Helen Lee, Regina Martinez, Allen Moore, and avery r. young. These multidisciplinary artists each receive a full year of access to no-cost studio space, a stipend, and additional support. In collaboration with Artistic Director, Yolanda Cesta Cursach Montilla, and other HCL staff, Artists in Residence are able to shape their residency to best serve their artistic development and professional growth. Resources range from advising on research, editorial and budgeting assistance for individual project grants, documentation and production support, to opportunities to share and discuss work-in-development through HCL’s Open Labs.

The residency selection process is guided by HCL’s eleven-member Artistic Advisory Council. This panel includes highly respected artists, educators, and curators who bring their expertise in sound art, performance, dance, video, new media, and more to the review process.

A defining concern among the full 2023 residency cohort is loss, the concept of safety, and how one can access healing modalities in engaging the somatic experience of connection,” explains Cesta Cursach Montilla.

These five Artists in Residence are joining seven Fellow Artists in Residence (FAR): Newly Formed Trio (Deidre Huckaby, Jessica Anne, & Mabel Kwan), Maggie Bridger, Meredith Haines, Shalaka Kulkarni, Corey Smith, Kinnari Vora, and Juliann Wang. The FAR program invites Artist in Residence (AIR) program alumni to continue for a second full year to further their projects and deepen their practice. Fellows receive no-cost studio space and the same customizable support offered to all artists in HCL’s residency programs.

In 2023, HCL will also welcome two Partner Artists in Residence (PAR). First, through the National Performers Network Creation Fund, HCL is able to co-commission new work by Sugar Vendil, who was an HCL Artist in Residence in 2019. Additional co-commissioners include Living Arts of Tulsa and National Sawdust. As one of nine Consortium Members of Chicago Dancemakers Forum (CDF), HCL anticipates providing one CDF 2023 Lab Artist with the same resources offered to Fellow Artists in Residence, including no-cost access to facilities, mentorship, and connectivity.

Cesta Cursach Montilla states, “The artists at HCL don’t underestimate themselves as community-gatherers, self-producers, administrators, and artists to push for progress around the issues of race, equity, and access at the institution. They create through deep collaboration and combine sound, music, movement and technology to create expansive sensory universes.”

Throughout 2023, this cohort of 14 resident artists and their collaborators will present in-progress projects and performances through Open Labs, HCL’s flexible event series that allows visibility for the creative process and the opportunity for artists to workshop projects and ideas and to develop perspective on their work.