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.

Isaac Artenstein

Isaac Artenstein

Isaac Artenstein

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Isaac Artenstein

San Diego County

Isaac Artenstein is a filmmaker and educator who grew up in Tijuana and Chula Vista, studied at the University of California Los Angeles, and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from CalArts. He founded Cinewest to create documentaries and indie features focusing on the border and Latin America, such as "Break of Dawn," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Artenstein produced the comedy "A Day Without a Mexican" and created internationally distributed documentaries such as "Ballad of an Unsung Hero" and "The Hidden Jews of the Southwest." A founding member of the Border Arts Workshop, he produced and directed "Border Brujo" and "Christmas at the Reservation" with performance artists Guillermo Gómez Peña and James Luna. His recent "The Journeys of Harry Crosby" premiered on PBS and Canal 22 (Mexico's Cultural TV). He's currently producing "Border Noir" about crime fiction writers in the region and teaching film at the University of California San Diego.

Yvette Roman

Yvette Roman

Yvette Roman

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Yvette Roman

San Diego County

Yvette Roman is a bi-national artist, curator, muralist, and arts educator.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts and Cultural Anthropology from the University of California San Diego and a Museums Studies Certificate from Mesa College.  Yvette is passionate about making art accessible through community-organized collaboration.  Her artistic journey explores simplicity and chaos, interwoven with personal narratives of loss, self-discovery, and acceptance. Yvette's disciplines include painting, textiles, printmaking, and collage. In 2022, she collaborated on a public art project titled "Collective Memory," facilitated by the City of San Diego (Park Social). At A Reason to Survive, Roman assumes the roles of Curator and Lead Teaching Artists, nurturing the next generation of artistic minds.  She co-founded Residencia Ranchito Aurora (RRA). RRA aims to unite artists from both sides of the border to foster learning, collaboration, and innovation. Currently, she is undertaking a fellowship at RISE San Diego.

Kendrick "Mr. Lyrical Groove" Dial

Kendrick "Mr. Lyrical Groove" Dial

Kendrick "Mr. Lyrical Groove" Dial

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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.

Natalia Ventura

Natalia Ventura

Natalia Ventura

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Natalia Ventura

San Diego County

Natalia Ventura is a Mexican-Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist from the border city of Chula Vista. She leads a dual art practice -studio and social- that reflects the dichotomy of her borderlands consciousness. In her studio practice, Ventura explores her internal and domestic experiences as a border-dwelling woman. She manipulates materials from her everyday life, such as human hair, textiles, and family heirlooms, to understand and present her identity. Ventura also engages in social practice, using art as an organizing tool to fight for a better quality of life for border crossers. Ventura's dual approach grows symbiotically, strengthening her ability to express visualizations of liberation that she holds and shares with her border community. She is a 2022-2023 artist-in-residence with Artists at Work's Borderlands Initiative.

Carlos Uribe

Carlos Uribe

Carlos Uribe

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Carlos Uribe

Imperial County

Carlos Antonio Uribe is a 4th generation mariachi musician and director of Mariachi Acero Del Valle. He was born in Portland, Oregon, with roots in Guadalajara, Jalisco. He lives and works in Niland, California. He has performed with Mariachi Los Toros, Mariachi Espectacular, the 2022 Summit of the Americas, and Mariachi Acero.

Ramel Wallace

Ramel Wallace

Ramel Wallace

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Ramel Wallace

San Diego County

Ramel Wallace is a multi-dispensary artist working at the intersection of creativity, community, and technology. He is the Senior Community Manager at BAM, a public relations and marketing firm for venture-backed companies. Wallace is responsible for researching, developing, and managing BAM events with key internal and external stakeholders. He has been a recording artist for over fifteen years, leading him to host CreativeMornings/SanDiego and become a San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art board member. Before BAM, Wallace was the CEO and Founder of thChrch and continues to live at the intersection of art, tech, and creativity. His roots in Hip Hop have allowed him to turn his ability to control a crowd into an ability to run an organization and lead a community. He is currently the CEO of The Holyfield, an organization that focuses on creativity and identity.

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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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