Artists Who Have Shaped the Residency Program

Explore visual and performing artists who have participated in the Emerging Artist Residency Program at Arts District Liberty Station, contributing new ideas, performances, and creative perspectives to the San Diego arts community.

2025-2026 Emerging Artists in Residence

Visual Arts

Ana Saad

San Diego-based multimedia artist Ana Saad (they/them) works primarily with ceramics and fiber to create sculptural forms exploring queer identity, human nature, and communal interaction. Their work uses organic motifs to question gender binaries and explore the emotional realities of queer experience.

During the residency, Ana looks forward to hosting workshops and open studio events for the community.

Audrey Gingras

Audrey Gingras (she/her) creates sculptural installations exploring the space between physical reality and spiritual experience. Working with stained glass, ceramics, steel, and wax, her work investigates memory, ritual, and transformation.

Her residency will focus on expanding collaborative and community-based artistic practice.

Marcela Alarcón López

Tijuana-based artist Marcela Alarcón López (she/her) blends her background in psychotherapy with visual arts to explore emotional and psychological narratives. Her work spans painting and sculpture, incorporating experimental materials such as cement, acrylics, transparencies, and unconventional supports.
Through the residency, Marcela is expanding her artistic practice while developing a more cohesive body of work.

Eden DeLaVara

Eden DeLaVara (she/her) is a mixed media artist based in San Diego whose work explores belonging, comfort, and intercultural exchange through the lens of her Mexican-American and Black identities. Her figurative paintings and drawings use vibrant color and texture to celebrate everyday moments while drawing inspiration from contemporary Black art movements and creative practices along the U.S.–Mexico border.
During her residency, Eden is developing a new body of work combining the legacy of African American quilting with contemporary painting and fiber art.

Dance Arts

Miguel Galvan

Miguel Galvan (he/him) is a San Diego-based movement artist, choreographer, and educator whose work bridges street dance and contemporary technique. With more than a decade of teaching experience, his practice blends freestyle movement with formal choreography.

Through the residency, Miguel aims to develop new work while building connections across the Arts District creative community.

Giovanna Francisco

Movement artist Giovanna Francisco (she/her) draws inspiration from plants, wildlife, vulnerability, and authentic human expression. A UC San Diego graduate in Dance and Sociology, she creates work rooted in community and collective presence.

Her residency provides an opportunity to deepen her choreographic research and collaborate with artists across disciplines.

Lilian Ibarra Pantoja

Multidisciplinary artist Lilian Ibarra Pantoja (she/her) began her dance training in Tijuana and has worked across folklórico, contemporary ballet, and modern dance. Her choreographic work explores identity, heritage, and cultural connection.

During the residency, Lilian plans to expand her creative voice and develop new choreographic work.

Rachel Torres

Rachel Torres (she/her) graduated from UC San Diego with a BA in Literature and a minor in Dance. She has performed with numerous San Diego choreographers and was a company dancer with Malashock Dance Company.

Through the residency, Rachel will focus on developing new choreography and collaborating with artists across the Arts District.

2024-2025 Emerging Artists in Residence

Visual Arts

Amanda DiGiovanni

Born and raised in San Diego, local artist Amanda DiGiovanni has always been captivated by the dynamic nature of multimedia art and its ability to transcend boundaries. Her creative journey began at a young age, experimenting with various techniques and mediums, leading her to continue her artistic pursuits. Through her work in sculpture, performance and photography, Amanda evokes profound reflections on human existence.
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Helena Westra

Based in San Diego, Helena Westra is a multifaceted artist specializing in sculpture, ceramics, performance and land art. Utilizing a diverse range of accessible and often locally harvested materials such as clay, dirt and found objects, her work serves as a meditation on introspection, release and grounding. Helena delves into the realms of symbology and archetypes, employing themes of flora and fauna to forge a deep connection between the land and environment. (Website)

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Sean Sarmiento

Prior to his debut residency in Arts District Liberty Station, Sean Sarmiento has showcased his captivating work throughout Southern California. As a photo-based artist, he manipulates architectural and photographic norms to challenge traditional perceptions of photography and two-dimensionality. Sean has exhibited his work at the Athenaeum Museum in La Jolla, Palos Verdes Art Center and the Student Life Pavilion and Metro Building at the University of San Diego, among others. His imagery often explores themes of home, capturing his own body in domestic settings to evoke feelings of being in-between, moments that are both unknown and familiar.
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Gracie Moon

As a Japanese American and white artist, Gracie Moon explores themes of racial and cultural intersectionality through her sculptural and performative work. She is currently developing a new body of work that integrates ceramics, performance and sculpture, utilizing materials such as food, found objects, and both industrial and domestic items to create visual poetry. These stories navigate the tension of the in-between spaces where the complexities of her multicultural identity are examined.
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Dance Arts

Joyce Lien Kushner

Born and raised in San Diego, Joyce Lien Kushner’s first love has always been dancing, specializing in modern, contemporary and dance conditioning. Despite moving away and switching career paths for a short period of time, Joyce’s journey has led her back to her hometown, reigniting her passion for not only creating captivating dance pieces but also teaching and training dancers of all ages across California. With this residency in Arts District Liberty Station, Joyce aims to curate an Asian American dance showcase, championing diverse narratives, fostering collaboration through innovative choreographic practices, and providing dedicated space for dance artists to refine their craft. Her vision embodies a commitment to nurturing creativity, amplifying underrepresented voices, and cultivating a vibrant, inclusive dance community in San Diego.

Lexii Regina

Is a multidisciplinary movement artist known for her curious exploration of storytelling. Utilizing the mediums of acrobatic dance, physical theater, improvisation, modern dance, and circus, she creates works exploring mental health, human connections, the communities that lift us up, and the hope that keeps us going. Lexii is thrilled to have been chosen as an Emerging Artist at Arts District Liberty Station and looks forward to using the beautiful studio space to develop a variety of short-form and evening length performances and dance films.

Micah Parra

Micah Parra has always been immersed in the world of dance. Growing up, Micah was quickly integrated into the circus community, leading her to the San Diego Circus Center in 2021. Since then, Micah continued to hone in on her acrobatic skills through various programs around San Diego. Excited to have a beautiful, accessible space to collaborate with other artists of multiple mediums, Micah looks to cultivate her own creative voice and facilitate a space where people learn to appreciate art as an invaluable tool for healthy expression and human connectivity.

2023-2024 Emerging Artists in Residence

Visual Arts

Lavina Rich

Choreographer and founder of Push Process Movement, Lavina is focused on exploring the human experience through movement, humor and shared emotions. She studied dance at Grossmont College and then UCSD, learning from many of San Diego’s finest dance creators and educators.
Lavina performed at the Without Walls (WOW) Festival, produced by the La Jolla Playhouse, in April 2022.  It was here that Lavina premiered her new work, The Reticent Volcano. She is now shifting and beginning a new work for Disco Riot’s first Queer Movement Festival in June 2022. This work will explore the life of Nancy Valverde and the masquerading laws of the 1940/1950s in Southern California.

Dance Arts

Trixi Anne Agiao

Trixi Anne Agiao is a socially conscious performer, choreographer and filmmaker using the digital guise of The Thoughtful Beast. She creates work centered on fighting the stigma against mental illness and mental health. Trixi graduated Summa Cum Laude from UC San Diego where she received most of her formalized dance training. She  grew up practicing indigenous Igorot dances from the Philippines. Trixi spent time as a dancer and assistant director with Visionary Dance Theatre and is now a freelancer who has been expanding her performing and creating mediums.
Trixi actively participates in the following organizations: Movement Catalysts San Diego, The Filam Film Collective, The San Diego Filipino Cinema, United AAPI Artists, Visionary Dance Theatre and Mental Wellness for Artists. T

Leslye Villaseñor​

Leslye Villaseñor is a recent Studio Arts graduate from UC San Diego who has exhibited in several venues across San Diego, including the South Central Library in Chula Vista, the Student Gallery at Southwestern College, the Adam D. Kamil Gallery at UCSD, and the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library in La Jolla. Her growing body of work reflects her early presence in the local art scene.

Leslye Villaseñor is a recent Studio Arts graduate from UC San Diego who has exhibited in several venues across San Diego, including the South Central Library in Chula Vista, the Student Gallery at Southwestern College, the Adam D. Kamil Gallery at UCSD, and the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library in La Jolla. Her growing body of work reflects her early presence in the local art scene.

Marcella Torres-Sánchez

Marcella is from Tijuana, México, where she began her dance training at Denz Dance Studio at the age of three. She then continued her artistic and experimental studies at Lux Boreal Dance Company, where she received a certification in Contemporary Dance and Scenic Production. She was a member of Gloria Campobello Dance School and the Northwest México Ballet, and later received her Associate’s Degree in Visual and Performing Arts from San Diego City College. In 2020, Marcella graduated with honors from UC San Diego where was awarded the Patricia Rincon Diversity Award for her senior capstone project “Flores Ma(r)chitas.”

2019-2020 Emerging Artists in Residence

Visual Arts

Remi Dalton

San Diego-based artist. Her work investigates how internet culture has blurred the boundaries between art and life, aesthetics and ethics. Her practice is centered around painting, but also includes video, mixed media, and installation. Remi received her Master of Fine Arts in Painting from San Diego State University in 2019, and dual Bachelor’s degrees in Visual Arts and Chemistry from the University of San Diego in 2014.
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Nina Montejano

Nina Montejano is a visual artist currently based in San Diego. Working in a variety of media, she uses subjects that carry personal implications and meanings, which she has developed through her own life experiences. Her work is personally meditative in its repetition of ordinary subjects and material handling; more importantly, however, it raises questions of meaning rather than giving a direct answer. Nina earned her Bachelor of Arts in visual arts and architecture from the University of San Diego in 2019.
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