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 implemented those campaigns through May 2024.

Miki Vale

San Diego County

Miki Vale is an international Hip Hop performing artist and U.S. cultural ambassador, teaching artist, Old Globe-commissioned playwright, and founder of SoulKiss Theater, an arts education organization for queer Black womxn. Her work serves to amplify community consciousness around relationships, wellness, and justice. Vale has performed and participated in panels at landmark venues and festivals in the US and internationally, from Hollywood and Washington D.C. to Mumbai and Cairo. For her contributions to Hip Hop culture, Vale has earned a San Diego Hip Hop Honors Award, a Female Perspective Award, and the 2021 San Diego Music Award for Song of the Year for "Bad Wolves," a song condemning anti-Black racism. For her work within the LGBTQIA+ community, she was awarded the 2017 Bayard Rustin Civil Rights Honor.

Eric "EV93" Vargas

Imperial County

Eric Vargas, aka EV9thr33, lives and works in the Imperial Valley. He is passionate about creating and producing music and has produced, mixed, and mastered thousands of solo and collaborative projects for over ten years. He has recently expanded to work with more genres and networks with different outlets such as record labels and A&Rs. Since opening a studio in the area, Vargas has also pursued his artist development.

Sergio "Takito" Ojeda

Imperial County

Sergio Ojeda is a spray paint artist dedicated to changing the narratives of the binational communities of Imperial Valley and Mexicali. He was born and raised in the borderlands with a bohemian lifestyle and a cosmic perspective gained from an education focused on research, science, and psychology.

Sandra Carmona

San Diego County

Sandra Carmona is of Wixárika descent, Chicana, daughter of farmworkers, and a muralist for over 20 years. She is a well-known leader in her community and a longtime activist for farmworkers and Indigenous rights. She founded Calpulli Omeyocan, a grassroots Indigenous dance collaborative, and her project, Maijawee Divine Serpent, is a transborder art piece that served as a political statement in solidarity with the Kumeyaay Nation and Indigenous people’s struggle over sovereignty on the U.S.-Mexico border. Sandra’s art intends to amplify the voices of her people and showcase their culture, contributions, struggles, and vibrancy. To her, art is medicine.

Katie Ruiz

San Diego County

Katie Ruiz is a Chicana artist born and raised in Southern California. She is an interdisciplinary artist, making work in painting and fiber sculpture. Ruiz is the creator of the Pompom Project, a community art project that invites participants to make pompoms for larger art installations. She is known for her activism work with refugees and the children's book "Brian the Wildflower." Ruiz has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Northern Arizona University and a Master of Fine Art from The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture in New York City.

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.

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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, and implemented them through August 2024.

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