Resourcing artists since 2009.

Our Vision

The vision of High Concept Labs (HCL) is a vibrant, artist-driven ecosystem that is equitable, inclusive, wide-reaching, and allows for experimentation. We work towards this vision by providing artists crucial support to develop and present new work.

Our Story

Since its founding in 2009, HCL has facilitated more than 300 artist residencies across genres and disciplines, showcased Chicago-based artists to broad audiences, and brought 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. 

Our original home was a warehouse space in an industrial corridor on Chicago’s north side. This spacious studio allowed the organization to sponsor wide-ranging artists to develop short-term creative projects. This adaptable, service-oriented environment, bolstered by a creative staff adept at supporting administrative aspects of artistic careers, quickly established HCL as the place for artists to seek support for interdisciplinary, process-based, collaborative, participatory, and experimental projects. 

In 2014, we moved to Mana Contemporary, situated between the Pilsen, Bridgeport, and Chinatown neighborhoods. As an early tenant of this expansive arts center, HCL was able to present a diverse array of public programs from symposiums to youth workshops to art parties that activated raw spaces throughout the building. Our glass-walled studio, affectionately called “the fish bowl” offered artists dedicated space with specialized resources for performance-based artistic projects, from movement to music to installation to new media. This studio included a sprung-wood dance floor, grand piano, and abundant technology to support sound, video, and new media projects. Through partnerships with Mana Contemporary and Monira Foundation, we were able to thrive within this Southside arts hub for eleven fruitful years. 

In 2019, HCL transitioned to a co-director leadership model. Our season sponsored artist program was reinvented as a full year residency, with the option to return for an additional year of support. This extended duration offers stability and predictability, which in turn allows artists to focus on process, experimentation, and new directions within their artistic practice. Partner Residencies (presented in collaboration with peers like Chicago Dancemakers Forum and 3Arts) and LabX Residencies (bringing artists to Chicago for immersion into the local arts community) were developed to continue tailoring our support to meet artists’ diverse needs. Shared resources include studio access, curatorial and research support, professional documentation, production assistance, and marketing support. 

During this era, the Open Lab event series was also developed as a flexible platform for artists to share their developing projects, test ideas, and gain perspective on their work through community exchange.

Our newest program, Art/Access Labs, began in 2022 as monthly gatherings of disabled artists. Art/Access Labs are centered around artists with a lived experience of disability including Deaf, disabled, sick, neurodivergent, and Mad artists, and those working through their relationship to these categories, working in all mediums. Art/Access Lab was developed by Maggie Bridger, is a sick and disabled dance artist, fiber artist, access worker, and scholar interested in reimagining pain through the creative process, during a 2022-2023 Residency with High Concept Labs. We continue to steward this program as an ongoing hybrid event series in programmatic partnership with Unfolding Disability Futures, a collective of Chicago-based disabled performing artists, and venue partnership with Experimental Station in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood.

Over the past sixteen years, HCL has developed core strengths that now define the organization: long-duration residencies, commitment to experimental and interdisciplinary work, dedicated support for artists, access and inclusion. Through prioritizing emergence, we ensure that new ideas and practices evolve to continually meet the changing needs of the artists and the community.