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.

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.

Anthony Sigala

Anthony Sigala

Anthony Sigala

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Anthony Sigala

Imperial County

Anthony Sigala, a contemporary Mexican-American artist intrigued by depicting the human form in its graceful complexity, movement, and many individual cultural identities. A draftsman, illustrator, and designer who uses form, line, movement, composition, and color to push subjects to their essence. He uses various art mediums, expanding his creative process by translating a concept into a visual language. He is a graduate of Art Center College of Design (illustration). His artworks include Mattel Toys, Reebok, Taco Bell, Disney, and numerous publications and municipalities. He has been an artist and educator, believing art and education can transform lives. Sigala has taught visual arts at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, Pasadena City College, Imperial Valley College, and adult schools. Sigala is based in Brawley, California.

Amber Green

Amber Green

Amber Green

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Amber Green

Imperial County

Amber Green was born and raised in the small town of Marshall, Texas, home of "The Great Debaters." She studied studio art at Arizona Western College and the Art Institute in Dallas. She now lives and works in El Centro. Green works primarily within the medium of animation.

Miki Vale

Miki Vale

Miki Vale

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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.

Zaquia Mahler Salinas

Zaquia Mahler Salinas

Zaquia Mahler Salinas

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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).

Marcos Duran

Marcos Duran

Marcos Duran

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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.

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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.

  • Playwrights Project

    Playwrights Project

    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. 

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    Playwrights Project
  • Best S.T.E.P. Forward

    Best S.T.E.P. Forward

    Best S.T.E.P. Forward

    Imperial County

    Best STEP Forward is a nonprofit serving the Imperial Valley area dedicated to providing an inclusive, neurodiverse environment where children with disabilities can learn and thrive. S.T.E.P. stands for Sports, Theatre, Expression, and Perseverance. The organization hosts various events throughout the year that incorporate sports and artistic expression.

    Visit Website for Best S.T.E.P. Forward

    Best S.T.E.P. Forward
  • Urban Collaborative Project Community Development Corporation

    Urban Collaborative Project Community Development Corporation

    Urban Collaborative Project Community Development Corporation

    San Diego County

    The Urban Collaborative Project CDC serves the historically redlined community of Southeast San Diego through community capacity-building efforts to connect residents to upstream services and resources through action teams and strategic partnerships between community members and key stakeholders. UCP empowers residents to identify their neighborhood issues and address challenges. Teams create action plans, outreach, and solutions to address disparities focusing on health, housing, transportation, art, and infrastructure. This community healing process builds capacity by encouraging,  training, and supporting residents to identify and solve community issues together.

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    Urban Collaborative Project Community Development Corporation

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