High Concept Labs

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!

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.

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