Artists + Practitioners + Organizations

Meet the artists, practitioners, and organizations! Far South/Border North awarded funding to support artists and cultural practitioners working in disciplines from performing arts, visual arts, music, film and media, and literature to multidisciplinary and socially engaged forms.

Far South/Border North Round I Grant Recipients

Our Round I grant recipients include about 60 artists and cultural practitioners from San Diego and Imperial counties. Round I grant recipients began developing their campaigns in June 2023, and are now implementing those campaigns through May 2024.

Debby Kline

San Diego County

Debby Kline, a mixed media artist, is the Joyce Cutler-Shaw Artist in Residence at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.  Her solo exhibitions notably include Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, California Center for the Arts, La Casa del Tunel, Southwestern and Mesa College Art Galleries, and La Jolla Athenaeum.  Group exhibitions include the Torrance Art Museum, San Diego Art Institute, and Museum on the Seam, Israel.  Her work is covered in periodicals such as Utne and Orion and books including “The Artists Guide,” and “Design and Ethics: Reflections on Practice.” She was featured in an Emmy Award-winning episode of ArtPulse TV and awarded the Calzona Prize. Grants include Gunk Foundation (NY,) Potrero Nuevo Fund (SF,) Center for Cultural Innovation (LA,) UCIRA (SD,) the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and the San Diego Art Prize. Past artists residencies include the San Diego Natural History Museum, Torrance Art Museum, and Center for Land Use Interpretation.

Berenice Badillo

San Diego County

Berenice is a Spanish-speaking Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, illustrator, muralist, and multimedia artist. She is an immigrant from Mexico and has straddled intertwined cultural and subcultural identities her entire life. She illustrated an award-winning book, "Am I Blue or am I Green?" that explores the identity and impact of a boy's life with undocumented parents in the United States. Berenice strives to document and encourage the creation of communal cultural wealth through murals, sculpture, pop-up art galleries, and the co-creation of counterstories. Berenice believes that representation is important and sees art expression as a means to amplify the voices of BIPOC and disseminate the stories of their community where it can be witnessed on a grand scale. Berenice is a Chicano Park muralist with a doctorate in art therapy and a social-emotional learning consultant.

Kendrick "Mr. Lyrical Groove" Dial

San Diego County

Kendrick Dial, also known as Mr. Lyrical Groove, is a renaissance man with a mission to blend mental health and social justice art. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Africana Studies/Psychology from San Diego State University and a Master's in Social Work from the University of South California. Dial is an accomplished spoken word artist who published his first poetry book, Da JOYNT, in 2005. He has worked with the poetry collective Collective Purpose for over ten years, hosting one of Southern California's highest-attended open mic events, ELEVATED. He has collaborated with several arts-based organizations to perform and produce shows that inspire, challenge, educate, and entertain, including BkSoul, Playwrights Project, and Ira Aldridge Theatre. He is also a teaching artist with the Old Globe and recently completed a veteran playwriting workshop with the La Jolla Playhouse, where he is working on his two-person production.

Ernesto "Pisado" Gonzalez

San Diego County

A transborder artist, Ernesto Gonzalez is activated by the cultural energy surrounding his community of South San Diego, acknowledging that his practice takes place on Kumeyaay land. Motivated to create meaningful change, he has dedicated his career to building a [digital] voice to broadcast his community's need for justice, equality, and inclusion. Gonzalez is passionate about filmmaking, music, and new media art, and he uses these mediums as anchors in his artistic process and exploration. Through his work as Executive Director of BLK Box Gallery & Creative Center in the borderlands of San Ysidro, he works to engage and support artists through community-centered programming. He received a Bachelor's in Visual Arts: Media (film) from the University of California San Diego and a Master's in Film from San Diego State University. His work as a creative is inspired, informed, and fueled by his Mexican heritage, family, struggles, blessings, and community.

Angel Esparza

Imperial County

Angel Esparza is a community-driven multi-media artist from Calexico. As the founder of Mi Calexico, his mission is to inform, inspire, and connect the community. Since 2009, Angel has been fostering connections among the residents of Calexico through various mediums, including photography, videos, a printed magazine, and events such as the Art Walk on the Border, which has brought together hundreds of artists from the region. Mi Calexico has emerged as one of the most engaging platforms in the area, thanks to the heartfelt dedication that Angel and his team pour into his campaigns and events. He ran for city council in 2016, displaying his passion for civic engagement. Additionally, Angel has served on the Calexico Chamber of Commerce board and played an integral role in the Mariachi Festival Committee.

Neil Kendricks

San Diego County

Neil Kendricks is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, filmmaker, and educator. Kendricks earned a Master's in Television, Film, and New Media from San Diego State University in 2006. Kendricks launched his mixed-media "Strange Fruit" drawing series as a participant in the Art Produce Gallery's 2020 Artist-in-Residence program. The exhibition "Mirror, Mirror: Lights, Camera, Dreams!" at Bread and Salt Gallery showcased his short films and storyboards in 2021. Kendricks' exhibition "Temple of Story" which combined large-scale drawings with audio recordings of his short stories inspired by past, present, and future pandemics, was shown at the Oceanside Museum of Art 2021/2022.  His new experimental short film, "Book of Skin," will complete postproduction in 2023.

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Far South/Border North Round II Grant Recipients

Our Round II grant recipients include 18 San Diego and Imperial County organizations. In fall 2023, they hired artists and cultural practitioners and began working alongside them to develop their campaigns, they are implementing through August 2024.

  • Hill Street Country Club

    San Diego County

    The Hill Street Country Club is a nonprofit organization dedicated to shaping the growing arts and culture scene in Oceanside and the surrounding North Country region. We strive to create an inclusive and diverse atmosphere that reflects the socioeconomic landscape of our community.  The organization's mission is to encourage art beyond gallery walls to create a culture where artists and the community can thrive together in North County San Diego.

    Hill Street Country Club
  • San Diego Urban Warriors

    San Diego County

    San Diego Urban Warriors uses theatre, art, culture, health education, and heritage to creatively develop youth, families, and community to be healthy, active, and fit, mind, body, and spirit. The organization aims to create an urban performing artist community advocating, teaching, and demonstrating collective work and responsibility, promoting health, self-determination, and discipline through creative edutainment, artistic experiences, and exploration. This community represents the performing arts and serves as an alternative means of intervention when traditional forms don't work.

    San Diego Urban Warriors
  • San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art

    San Diego County

    The mission of the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art (SDAAMFA) is to present and preserve the art of African Americans globally and to broaden the knowledge and understanding of the visual arts in Southern California generally and San Diego specifically by collecting, preserving and displaying works of art by and about African Americans; by creating and hosting quality traveling exhibitions; by collecting and preserving fine art and by developing and helping to foster an appreciation of art through meaningful public programs, symposia, and other educational programs.

    San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art

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