High Concept Labs Announces Artist Commissions

High Concept Labs (HCL) is accelerating efforts to launch an ongoing artist commissioning program through the support of the Walder Foundation as one of ten organizations selected to be curating partners for Chicago Takes 10 - a new virtual series highlighting artists and arts organizations affected by the pandemic and subsequent shut downs.

Curated by Artistic Director Yolanda Cesta Cursach Montilla, HCL is commissioning new work by five Artists (ten performers total) to receive professional video and audio recordings and be included in HCL's Chicago Takes 10 livestream. Mark your calendar for July 22 at 6PM and visit www.chicagotakes10.org to join in, along with a live chat with the artists.

The breadth of the artists commissioned varies in performance styles, genres, and relationships to HCL. HCL is supporting two current HCL Resident Artists, two alum, and an artist to watch who is new to HCL. From the Artistic Director:

"Chicago Takes 10 (CCT) came up in February 2021 like a sun rising. For thirteen months performance artists have wondered if they can continue. It is hard to stay motivated. It takes a lot of mind and body power to do that. Artists are doing a whole jumble of things to stay afloat, from teaching hourly and attending demonstrations, to helping out with mutual aid. Stepping away from performing is not an option; they are members of the social conscience as artists.

I can't think of a more important time to launch HCL Commissions, a program vital to our vision that we are fortunate to accelerate and amplify with Walder Foundation support and the CTT recordings. Artists want to know they have a future. They want to create for that future. I am interested in artists who carry into the future a clear sense of our present. I turned to five deeply experimental artists whose main material is people and human relations, and who trouble to notice how the world looks now and won't look forever. I'm excited how radically different the commissions are turning out; it's a mini-festival that represents HCL's full performance spectrum, and reflects the generous, sometimes trickster, earnestness of artists today."

For more information, please contact Missi Davis, Managing Director, at missi@highconceptlabs.org.