The JustArts Fellowship for Student Leaders in the Arts invites students to design, develop, and complete projects that enhance access to meaningful arts experiences. Fellows identify challenges, propose creative solutions, and collaborate with peers and Arizona Arts mentors to bring their vision to life.

Benefits:
- Students receive a $6,000 award and a budget to execute their project.
- Students earn course credit while learning new skills.
- Students gain holistic mentorship and networks of support.
Priority Deadline: Friday, April 4, 2025
To apply for the 2025-26 JustArts Fellowship, please read the Call for Applications PDF that outlines the application process, eligibility, funding and commitment.
Call for Applications:
Ready to Apply?
JustArts Info Sessions
Questions? Email the JustArts Coordinator, Gia Del Pino. Or review the Info Session’s slide deck and Zoom video recording to learn ways to help your project stand out.
- Info Session Slide Deck (PDF)
- Virtual Info Session Recording (YouTube)
Meet the new JustArts Program Coordinator
Gia Del Pino is taking on a new assignment at Arizona Arts as the Student Programs Coordinator for the JustArts Fellows, after nearly two years as the marketing specialist at the Center for Creative Photography.
In her new role, Gia will work closely with emerging artists and scholars, supporting their exploration to create a better, more just world on-campus and beyond.
2024-2025 JustArts Fellows

Nicolette (Niko) Gomez
School of Art, BA
Nicolette (Niko) Gomez (Yaqui) is a senior completing a B.A. in Design Arts and Practice at the School of Art with a minor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Eller College of Management. Leveraging her passion for technology in the arts, her project, “Digital Art Inspired by Indigenous Tradition,” introduces Indigenous students at the U of A to technology and cultural expression using ArcGIS, an interactive mapping software to ensure students feel welcomed on campus. Participants create digital art for social good that fosters relationships with and within tribal communities.

Ruben (Ben) Reynoso
School of Theatre, Film, & Television, BA
Information Science, BS
Ruben (Ben) Reynoso is a senior in the W. A. Franke Honors College completing a B.S. in Information Science and a B.A. in Film and Television. His project, “Tucson Zines Online – Creating a Digital Archive of Tucson Zines Throughout the Years,” will expand the reach of the zine art form by developing an online archive of zines and hosting zine-making workshops for students at the U of A.

Mackenzie (Kenzie) Roberts
School of Dance, MFA
Second-year graduate student Mackenzie (Kenzie) Roberts is completing an M.F.A. in Dance. Passionate about creating spaces where everyone can express their art freely, her project, “Harmonizing Movement: Inclusive Improv Jams,” invites all artists—dancers, musicians, and creatives alike—to come together, explore their art, and dance for the pure joy of it. In collaboration with the Disability Resource Center and the community, the monthly jams are designed to welcome participants with a wide range of abilities and needs, fostering an environment where everyone can engage, learn from one another, and explore adaptive movement techniques.

Taryn Williamson
School of Music, BA
Taryn Williamson is a third-year undergraduate completing a dual B.A. in Music and Live and Screened Performance. In her project, “Fit to Perform,” she aims to change how people in the performing arts view their bodies, abilities, and roles. Through speaker events, workshops, and community building, her project will connect students with tools and resources to claim their bodies, build confidence and resilience, and use their experiences to express themselves wholly, regardless of how others might view them.

Chris Zatarain
Applied Intercultural Arts Research, MA
Chris Zatarain is a second-year M.A. student in the Graduate Interdisciplinary Degree Program in Applied Intercultural Arts Research. His project, “Imagining Climate Futures: Worldmaking through Community-Based Narrative Storytelling and Climate Fiction,” invites U of A and Tucson community members coming from various backgrounds and abilities to explore issues related to climate change through creative storytelling. The project encourages participants to see themselves as individuals with agency and a say in shaping our collective futures.
2023-2024 JustArts Fellows

Joseph Campos
School of Music, BM
Project: Joseph is a native of Tucson and a 3rd year undergraduate studying music production and audio engineering. Joseph’s project grows the relationship with local hip-hop artists that was seeded in 2022-23 by inaugural JustArts Fellow Josh Barbre. In collaboration with the Tucson Hip Hop Festival, he will create a series of events for UA students to gain direct experience in rapping and music production.

Sophia Harrigan
School of Theatre, Film, & Television, BA
Project: Sophia is a 3rd year undergraduate double majoring in classics and film. Her project aims to raise student awareness about gender-based violence and bias in the filmmaking industry. She will organize opportunities for students to learn inclusive best practices that help prevent gender inequities, exclusions, and harm in film and theatre productions.

Diego Gonzales
School of Dance, BFA
Project: Diego is a 3rd year undergraduate dance major, was inspired by inaugural JustArts Fellow Arianna Aquino to use his artform to support student wellbeing. Diego will organize and facilitate a group of UA student volunteers to bring dance and movement into local schools. The project will share the healing and liberatory power of this art with youth who, because of society’s unrealistic body standards, gender expectations, or socioeconomic barriers, are often denied opportunities to express themselves through dance.

Semoria Mosely
School of Art, MFA
Project: Semoria is a 2nd year graduate student studying photography, video, and imaging. She conceived Outside the Network, an installation project that will foster intimacy and recognition between students from “different sides of the tracks.” Her installation will consist of three campus telephone booths that participants enter to record a message, but only after listening to the previous student’s message in its entirety. This interactive art experience will culminate in a campus-wide audio pop-up event where UA’s 40,000 students can hear one another.

Anni Peng
School of Music, PhD
Project: Anni is a graduate-level music education major. Her Culturally Responsive Music project will go beyond the university campus to connect undergraduate student musicians with elders in the Chinese immigrant community of Tucson. Based on a needs assessment with the participants, Anni will design musical experiences to promote cultural exchange and social inclusion.
2022-2023 JustArts Fellows

Dylan Crites
School of Theatre, Film & Television, BA
Project: Dylan will develop an accessible performance group to address the scarcity of theater opportunities for BIPOC and Queer students and those who live at the intersections of those identities.
Dylan Crites is a Junior studying Theatre and Computer Science. Originally from the El Paso-Juárez area, he is also an avid writer of plays, books, screenplays, and the occasional video game. Dylan has been heavily involved in the theatre scene at the U of A, and you might recognize them as Death from the Next Performance Collective rendition of Everybody by Brandon Jacobs Jenkins or from the Magic Hour 2022 short films. He is also an active member of InVisibility, taking part in their S.A.L.O.N. as an organizer and performer, and was one of many dramaturges the New Direction’s Festival.

Carlos Garcia Ramirez
School of Music, BM
Project: In a project titled “Breaking borders, making bridges,” Carlos will increase awareness, knowledge, and understanding of Mexican music and culture in the borderlands.
Carlos Garcia is originally from the Yaqui tribe community in Sonora, Mexico, he was born and raised in Guaymas, Mexico. Carlos began his musical studies when he was 10 years old at Fray Ivo Toneck Arts Foundation in Guaymas. He became the principal bassoonist for The Young National Orchestra of Mexico (2009 – 2012). In 2012, he was a founding conductor of Orquesta Sinfonica Esperanza Azteca Sonora, he also conducted with famous cellist Carlos Prieto the Saint – Säenz cello concerto in A minor. Through 2012-2016, Carlos got the title of the youngest orchestra conductor of Mexico.

Dorthea Stephenson
School of Music, BM
Project: Dorthea’s research-based project, “Beyond Europe,” will catalyze conversations about how to diversify and decolonize standard music repertoire.
Dorthea Stephenson is currently in her fourth year of a Bachelor’s of Music Degree in Viola Performance at the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music, where she studies with Dr. Molly Gebrian. An avid advocate for underrepresented voices in classical music, Dorthea was part of a team of musicians from across the country to develop a database for underrepresented composers who have written viola repertoire. The database is currently on the American Viola Society website, and has over 500 composers and nearly 1600 pieces.

Arianna Aquino
School of Dance, MFA
Project: Arianna’s DEI Dance Gatherings are intended to create safe empowering spaces for student expression.
Arianna Aquino graduated with her BFA in dance from CalArts and is expecting to receive her MFA in dance from the University of Arizona in 2023. Both of which she also studied theater. She has had a professional dance and acting performance career on and off Broadway, in film, and television. For ten years in Brooklyn, NY, Arianna built, directed, and taught a Title I high school dance program. She served as the Chair of the Arts Department and was the Arts Instructional Coach.

Joshua Barbre
School of Music, PhD
Project: Joshua’s project connects the local hip-hop community with the University by organizing events to teach students graffiti, rap, and breaking. This will dovetail with the Tucson Hip-Hop festival.
Joshua Barbre is a PhD student in musicology at the University of Arizona. His research interests include music of the United States, specifically hip-hop and music curriculum development. Currently his dissertation project is addressing the impact of breaking as an Olympic event in the 2024 Paris games for current dancers, calling into question what is the difference between dancer/artist/athlete and if current practitioners of hip-hop dance believe that breaking should be included in the Olympics.