HCL Transformed How I See Myself in a Changing Arts Ecosystem
By Maya Collins, Fall 2025 HCL Intern
Throughout my life I have encountered a broad misconception that the arts are extemporaneous or somehow unessential. And yet, as I look around at a world and a country that seems to be falling apart, nothing has brought me more stability and comfort than the arts and artist communities. I only recently moved to Chicago, where I am studying art and creative writing as an undergraduate student. Daily I face the same concerns as many other young artists: “how will I afford supplies, what will I eat, when will I complete my homework assignments, and how in all of this will I find time to be creative?” Beyond these concerns, I worry about my loved ones at risk of deportation, my friends attending peaceful protests who regularly fall victim to unsanctioned violence, decreasing access to gender-affirming healthcare for my partner, and on and on it goes. Amidst all of this, it is the queer book fair down the block, the artist installation fundraising for mutual aid in Gaza – the community that gathers and finds creative ways to care for one another – that gives me hope.
Maya Collins | Photo by Greg Halvorsen Schreck
“The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is – it’s to imagine what is possible”
During an age in our country and in our city when we need to be able to imagine a better future, the arts are essential. I have witnessed this firsthand as an intern at High Concept Labs, an artist residency program in Chicago. Over the past few months with this organization, my eyes have been opened to a whole new scope of the arts and art-making communities that work and collaborate across the city.
Graphic from Carissa Lee’s Open Lab performance at HCL
Irene Hsiao | Photo by Ricardo Adame
The artists in residence at HCL are making waves, thinking and working in entirely new ways. At an Art/Access Lab in November, I watched Terri Lynn Hudson, actor, voice-over artist and disability activist, present her work to make the arts accessible. She explained her use of multiple platforms to reach her audience through sound, visuals, and both combined. She explained how one version is not lesser, how each is designed to be a complete work, a full experience not lacking or diminished according to one’s access point. Is this not the sort of attention and care that is desperately lacking in today’s social climate? This, however, is not unique to simply one artist in residence…
Beyond the work of such artists, HCL’s programming functions out of an awareness of its larger social context. Angee Lennard and Aquil Charlton, the small but mighty team that run this organization, see their responsibility to the broader community. In a time when broader infrastructures of support are failing individual communities, especially those on the margins, the work of organizations like HCL support affected artists. On this note, HCL recently conducted a survey with Chicago Dancemakers Forum to gauge the feelings and experiences of Chicago’s performance community and interest in a convening. Having received a robust 92 responses, plans for a convening (and survey report) are underway.
Open Lab conversation with Sugar Vendil, Irene Hsiao and Annie Wang at HCL | Photo by HCL
Terri Lynne Hudson | Video Still
As I consider my responsibility as an artist in Chicago, it is impossible to not also consider what I have learned in my time at HCL. How I look at the arts has changed, how I see myself within that broader ecosystem, and my own power to make a difference has changed. The organizational work done by the team at HCL is in and of itself a form of art that has helped me “to imagine what is possible” (Hooks, 1994, p. 281). I see artists and leaders coming together to find creative solutions to problems being faced by our communities. I see individual artists whose practices reflect a vested interest in communal access and engagement. I look forward to the community convening set to happen in spring 2026, and am beyond grateful for the opportunity to be connected with this thoughtfully engaged arts organization.
