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.

Thao French

San Diego County

Thao Huynh French is an artist, muralist, and street photographer. Born in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, she lives and works in San Diego. She is best known for co-founding Mindful Murals™, a creative social enterprise with the mission of bringing communities together through the power of art. Since launching it in 2018, she and her husband (and business partner) have painted over 400 interactive murals for schools and public spaces, reaching places as far as Hawaii and Vietnam. French’s artwork explores different varieties of flowers and her Asian American heritage. Her art is an eclectic mixture of abstract and figurative concepts using acrylic and spray paint as primary mediums with no limitation of color. Her work continues to evolve, using years of practice to experiment with more modern ways to create art styles that are uniquely hers.

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.

Oscar J. Romo

San Diego County

Oscar Romo graduated as an architect with master's degrees in urban planning, social housing, and computer science and doctoral studies in environmental sciences. His concentration is art, reflecting scientific discoveries and exemplifying his academic research. An advocate of sustainability, he has created hundreds of art pieces made entirely from repurposed materials. He has worked in several countries on sizeable public art structures down to miniatures, always inspired by natural systems and resource conservation. Committed to education since he was in college, he has led thousands of students to appreciate science.

Dinah Poellnitz

San Diego County

Dinah Poellnitz is a curator and creative director, recognized as a leader for her arts programming in Oceanside's art and cultural district and a San Diego county leader in art curation and art education; she brings twelve years of experience in driving the development of communal partnerships, art exhibitions, and social impact programs across local communities. Throughout her tenure, Poellnitz gained a depth of knowledge in delivering the best-curated experiences through artist engagement and building partnerships with political organizers, students, artists, businesses, public institutions, and residents. In addition to her expertise, She is deeply committed to building thriving art communities and art event programming across Southern California.

Marcos Duran

San Diego County

Marcos Duran channels intersectional imaginations into embodied performance. His approach to directing is informed by craniosacral integration, political reflection, and the desire for personal and collective evolution. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Marcos was in the final days of completing his Master of Fine Arts in Dance Theatre at the University of California San Diego. He took refuge in creating "Acts of Togetherness," a social media series that cultivated international, digital dance collaborations. In 2021, his short film "Minced" won Best Performances at the LA Experimental Film Festival, and his evening-length solo, "Shapeshifter," debuted at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in 2022. Marcos is currently in post-production for his autobiographical dance film, "Best To Move," and "Guardians of Water," a short featuring Donal Hord's sculpture at Waterfront Park. Marcos works to educate and uplift diverse voices as a University of California San Diego and San Diego City College Lecturer.

Zaquia Mahler Salinas

San Diego County

Zaquia Mahler Salinas is a dance artist invested in movement-art as an act of reclamation and world-building. She has worked with many organizations in San Diego in various artistic, administrative, and teaching capacities. Zaquia has had the opportunity to engage dance communities worldwide, including a 2019 residency in Bethlehem, Palestine, focusing on dance as a form of cultural, embodied resistance. In 2018, she founded DISCO RIOT, a nonprofit movement-arts organization that supports local dance and provides creative possibilities for advancing the scene in San Diego. Zaquia is a lifelong learner and holds a bachelor's in Dance with honors from the University of California Santa Barbara (2011), a Master's in Dance: Creative Practice with honors from Saint Mary's College of California (2017), a certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of San Diego (2021), and a California Single Subject Teaching Credential for Dance (2022).

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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.

  • 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
  • Playwrights Project

    San Diego County

    Playwrights Project empowers people of all ages and backgrounds to voice stories through theatre, inspiring individual growth and creating meaningful community connections. Its vision is to sustain an inclusive, compassionate community that broadens minds through the power of creativity and theatre. It champions individual voices, with a focus on uplifting underserved communities through equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist practices that raise BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and similarly marginalized individuals. Programs serve youth in San Diego schools and individuals of all ages who have experienced poverty, homelessness, foster care, immigration, substance use disorder, the justice system, and the military. 

    Playwrights Project
  • DISCO RIOT

    San Diego County

    DISCO RIOT exists to elevate a collaborative art culture in San Diego and beyond — because the world needs more movement-based art. The organization connects dancers and artists who want to move themselves and audiences in ways that push boundaries to make high-impact art that promotes community, justice, and movement as a form of radical expression. DISCO RIOT produces and supports innovative dance programming, connects artists across media and form to grow and intensify community, and provides an educational space that reflects contemporary and progressive professional realities.

    DISCO RIOT

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