Meet the Fall 2023 HCL Team
From Left: Angee Lennard, Mallory Qiu, Rika Lin, & Veronica Salinas. Photo by Cindy Lan.
High Concept Labs is pleased to announce that Veronica Anne Salinas has joined HCL as our Marketing Manager.
This new staff position reflects our commitment to increasing the visibility of the creative process. By deepening our investment in marketing and communications, we will be able to better connect with artists and audiences who can benefit from our work while raising the visibility of the artists we support.
Veronica is an arts administrator, educator, and sound artist with a passion for interdisciplinary arts. With an MFA in Sound from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and specialized studies from The Center for Deep Listening, Veronica's arts administrative journey reflects a commitment to nurturing artistic growth and immersive learning experiences.
“I am excited to collaborate with the team in developing marketing strategies to amplify HCL's artists, projects, and initiatives,” says Veronica.
Additionally, Rika Lin joins us as Interim Artistic Director. Rika is an accomplished artist, curator, teacher, and arts administrator. She is an alumna of our Artist in Residence program, and currently serves both our Board of Directors and our Artistic Advisory Council. With a focus on public engagements and providing artistic support to Artists in Residence, Rika will be with HCL until the Board of Directors appoints a permanent Co-Director.
HCL is pleased to also announce that Mallory Qiu, who has been an intern with HCL since Summer 2022, will be continuing as Curatorial Assistant. She will provide broad assistance to HCL Co-Directors in areas related to the management of the HCL studio at Mana Contemporary, documentation of our programs and events, and the production and presentation of public-facing events. This temporary position continues through 2023.
These team members join HCL’s Managing Director, Angee Lennard.
A diversely creative and visionary leader, Aquil “AQ” Charlton leverages a wealth of experience as a teaching artist, consultant, and co-founder of artist collaboratives to make positive contributions in Chicago communities and the arts sector. Aquil is a gifted independent musician, rapper, songwriter, DJ, and producer who also plays electronics. He is the founder of Mobile Music Box, a mobile workshop practice of making musical instruments from common and recycled materials, and co-founder of Mobilize Creative Collaborative, which leads mobile play-based community art activations.
Angee Lennard is an arts administrator and printmaker dedicated to advancing Chicago’s non-profit arts sector in regards to equity, accessibility, community support, and operational and artistic excellence.
Motived by her own need for a welcoming and accessible space to take artistic risks, she founded the community printmaking studio, Spudnik Press Cooperative in 2007. She envisioned and built an innovative studio model where professional printmaking facilities offer a foundation for residencies, fellowships, education, exhibitions, collaborative projects and public programs, all grounded in printmaking’s history as a community-minded and accessible art form. She led the organization as Executive Director for 15 years.
As a professional printmaker, she has collaborated with local and nationally-recognized artists. Prints published by Angee Lennard have been exhibited at museums and galleries including The MoMA, the Smart Museum of Art, Monique Meloche, Editions VFO.
Her deep involvement in the arts, spanning organizational leadership, operational management, program development, studio maintenance, and print production has led her to a variety of local, regional, and national speaking engagements, as well as consultancy roles with colleges, universities, non-profits, and museums. She has been a lecturer at School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Arts Administration and Policy and the Printmedia departments. She has served as a Marwen Foundation Teaching Fellow, a grant review panelist for the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and Treasurer for the Chicago Printers Guild (CPG). She earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from SAIC in 2005, and has completed additional professional training through Kellogg School Center for Nonprofit Management.