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.

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.

Malik "Potnt Child" Glasgow

Imperial County

Malik Glasgow (stage name Potnt Child [Potential]) is a singer-songwriter, music producer, performing artist, saxophonist, graphic designer, fashion designer, and model. He's collaborated with various musical artists in the Imperial Valley and Southern California to create unique listening experiences and has performed often during local festivals, shows, expos, and gatherings. As an avid admirer of all forms of expression, he aims to help others bring their ideas from concept to creation through his organization Producing Happiness.

Olivia Quintanilla

San Diego County

Olivia Arlene Quintanilla is a Chamoru educator born and raised in San Diego. Her cultural practice focuses on intergenerational public ethnic studies programming that centers on civic and community engagement. She organizes workshops and events that use culture, such as food, music, dance, poetry, art, and storytelling, as a catalyst for connection, awareness, and social change. A first-generation college student alumni of San Diego community colleges, San Diego State University, and the University of California San Diego, she is now an Ethnic Studies professor at MiraCosta Community College in Oceanside.

Maxx Moses

San Diego County

Maxx Moses, an international muralist, is also known as Pose2, a world-renowned graffiti writer. His distinct style in urban art and corporate commissions and inspiring messages that connect to communities worldwide have garnered him global recognition from South Africa to South America. His projects promote an environment of longevity, growth, wholeness, and spiritual well-being. Awareness centers, therapeutic facilities, and spas embellished with this artist's work have received awards for beautification, experienced increased enrollment, and inspired several published articles. As a professor, his curriculum is innovative, engaging, and geared toward student success. Moses' insightfulness inspires young minds, while his experience motivates people to act. His encouragement sustains the discouraged and guides them toward achievement.

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.

MR Barnadas

San Diego County

MR Barnadas is an intercultural, interdisciplinary visual artist dedicated to the public sphere with an emphasis on site- and audience-specific participatory engagement. These artworks have been conducted in the form of murals, signage, performances, interventions, institutional critique, public events, and other collaborative gestures. Through collaboration with participants, nuanced perspectives are activated in the art production - ultimately to increase public discourse around representation.  She was born in Montreal to parents from Trinidad and Peru and grew up in the Southwest of the United States. She holds a BFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in Painting/Art & Technology; conducted Regional Studies in Mexican Art and Craft at the Universidad de las Américas, Puebla; holds an MFA in Visual Arts with a Public Culture focus from the University of California San Diego; and co-founded Collective Magpie, a shared practice dedicated to art in the public domain.

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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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