High Concept Labs

06/19/2026

High Concept Labs is hiring a Program Assistant!

This is a PAID temporary position for an early career individual interested in arts performing arts, arts administration, program management, and production.

Are you:
✓ 18 to 22 years old?
✓ interested in time-based art like music, dance, video, and experimental performance:
✓ familiar with video, projection, and sound equipment

Then send us your resume and a cover letter!

Highlights about the role:
✓12-14 hours of work per week
✓ Hybrid
✓$18/hour, with PTO
✓ for July and August 2025

Application review begins on Monday, June 22. See link in bio for details.

Thank you Illinois Arts Council for funding this position through the incredible Youth Employment in the Arts grant program! 🫶🏻

Part time, Temporary (April-August 2025)

04/29/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined the Chicago Performance Community Convening last weekend (and if you didn’t make it, we missed you and are grateful for your interest).

It was wonderful to spend time in community and be part of an exchange of ideas. Thank you for your contributions in all their forms - inspiration, inquiry, instigation, and beyond.

We are now working on organizing takeaways from the gathering to share out–anticipated by the end of May.

Also, a huge thank you to facilitators Alysha Monique, Nora Sharp, and Sam Thousand for creating such a thoughtful container for these conversations and leading with care. Thank you to Maggie Bridger for supporting the virtual space. Thank you also to + for hosting, for yummy drinks, and for support.

Photos by Ry Thiel.

04/22/2026

Meet William Estrada!

This weekend, William is joining Cuerpos Justificados, Unfolding Disability Futures, High Concept Labs, and Access Living in presenting:

Art/Access Lab: Know Your Rights
Sunday, April 26
2:00-4:00pm
📍in person at
👨🏿‍💻or RSVP for the zoom link
Details at https://buff.ly/dyNC5lb

William Estrada’s approach to art and teaching is centered on collaborative discourse. His roles as a teacher, artist, and cultural worker are intertwined. He draws on academic literature, educational settings, and personal interactions to report, record, reveal, and amplify lived experiences, aiming to foster radical imagination.

Estrada's current research focuses on developing community-based, culturally relevant projects that critically examine power structures related to race, the economy, and cultural access in contested spaces. He aspires to envision and work toward a more equitable collective future through intentional, sustained collaborations with individuals in their communities.

William Estrada is the printmaker behind the Mobile Street Art Cart. Inspired by ice cream and food vendor carts in Little Village. The Mobile Street Art Cart creates temporary space for talking about art and its impact on our communities, and shares resources to support artmaking and community-building.

Following our disability, immigration, and free speech Know Your Rights workshop (presented by Chris Ramos of Access Living), join William Estrada in creating and embellishing screenprinted protest posters!

04/20/2026

Meet Cuerpos Justificados!

Cuerpos Justifcatdos, Unfolding Disability Futures, High Concept Labs, and Access Living are all partnering to present the next Art/Access Lab.

Cuerpos Justificados, which translates to "Justified Bodies", is a disability-lead grassroots artist collective featuring intentional, innovative, and boundary-defying disability works that make political statements.

Cuerpos Justificados (CJ)integrates community participation and collaboration. Mixed ability organizing, love, vulnerability, and nonhierarchical decision-making from a crip-POC-feminist lens lays the groundwork for their collective. They value ✨CRIPISTEMOLOGY ✨, an approach that centers disabled ways of knowing and being in the world.

Join CJ co-founder, Genevieve Ramos, in creating mini-zines for community distribution and contributing to a collaborative artwork.

Art/Access Lab: Know Your Rights
Sunday, April 26
2:00-4:00pm
📍in person at
👩🏻‍💻or RSVP for the zoom link
w/ and
Details: https://buff.ly/dyNC5lb

04/17/2026

LAST CALL:
JOIN US FOR THE CHICAGO PERFORMANCE COMMUNITY CONVENING

🗓️Saturday, April 18
11:00am to 3:00pm

📍In person at + (3111 N Western Ave)
📣OR VIRTUALLY! (RSVP for zoom link)

Artists, performance makers, and change makers are invited to participate in this discussion to see how we can develop better, stronger, and more sustainable opportunities for performing artists together.

Facilitation by the incredible team of , , and , with zoom facilitation by .

Details & RSVP at https://buff.ly/cmvIpUU

This convening is organized and presented by and
—two organizations committed to supporting experimental performance and artistic practice, with support from .

04/16/2026

We are gearing up for Saturday’s Convening (don’t forget to RSVP!), and are looking for volunteers to help the day running smoothly.

We can use a few extra hands for set-up, during the event, and post-event wrap up. So if you’d like to lend a hand for a portion of the day, please reach out to Joanna Furnans at [email protected].

Hope to see you there!

04/15/2026

Please join us for a casual drink this Sunday, April 19th at 8pm at Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap to meet and greet with the HCL Board of Directors!

RSVP: https://buff.ly/C82zKzn
📍 1172 E 55th St, Chicago, IL 60615

We are in the process of expanding our board. We seek strategic thinkers, arts advocates, and representatives from a variety of professional fields and backgrounds to support our mission and help shape our future.

Want to see the work of HCL in action? Kick off the evening at Definition Theatre at 7pm where Carissa Lee is premiering 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘭, a new sonic and performance based work developed while in residency with High Concept Labs.

04/15/2026

Who Is This For— And Who is Missing?

Equity and access are two prevailing concerns of the 93 artists who completed the 2025 Chicago performance community survey. Respondents commented again and again on funding inequities, favoritism, scarcity, and outdated systems.

What will shift who is able to participate in Chicago’s multifaceted performance communities? What resources can we share and what actions do we need to advocate for?

Join us on Saturday, April 18th at + (or zoom in to the conversation) as we grapple with challenging and uncomfortable truths, and seek better ways forward.

For all the details and to RSVP: https://buff.ly/jQpai7B

04/14/2026

In the Chicago performance community survey (Fall 2025), and asked what factors are causing concern about the current moment and/or future of Chicago’s performance ecosystem. A strong through line was uncertainty about the physical spaces for making, presenting, and advocating for experimental performance.

Where Can This Work Actually Live?

Join us on Saturday, April 18th at + (or zoom in to the conversation) as we ask the question: Where can this work live now, and what could we build together?

For all the details and to RSVP: https://buff.ly/OSYPWjl

04/13/2026

Since the turning point of 2020, Chicago’s performance community has seen major losses as well as sea changes in the funding landscape and other access to resources for making work and being part of shared performance spaces. At the same time, artists themselves are continuing to innovate and find ways to make their work and connect with each other in spite of these losses. As we hit the second half of this decade, it’s time to check in: What’s out there that we can support, celebrate, and riff off of? What could we fight for and win from institutions and public services? What do we have to offer each other amidst and alongside the rollercoasters of things we cannot control?

As we gear up for the Chicago Performance Community Convening, we are sharing some of the questions that will guide our conversations–and some of the survey responses that highlight why these conversations are so necessary.

JOIN US:

🗓️Saturday, April 18
11:00am to 3:00pm
📍At +
(or virtually)

Please RSVP here: https://buff.ly/OSYPWjl