![\"Ligia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sut-l-fgall-arts-ligia-386a.jpg\")
<\/a>Ligia Santill\u00e1n is a Tijuana-born artist known for her contemporary and ceramic artwork. Since 2023, she has been curating arts and cultural tours south of the border through Art Scene Baja (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nSantill\u00e1n found out Dennert was working on a binational exhibition tied to Tijuana and San Diego\u2019s World Design Capital designation in 2024.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cLigia generously offered to introduce me and some colleagues to potential partners in Tijuana,\u201d Dennert recalled. \u201cWhat started as a day of art, food and cultural exploration became the foundation for Art Scene Baja. It was a carefully thought-through experience where she also helped me work through partnership details, timelines and logistics. That showed me her unique talent for building bridges between communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dennert had already been in San Diego for a couple of years but hadn\u2019t had much exposure to the artistic landscape in Tijuana. Santill\u00e1n wanted to change that. It was important for her to show Dennert \u201cwhat happens in Tijuana and the amazing things artists are doing south of the border.\u201d<\/p>\n
To make sure the tour was a success, Santill\u00e1n used her network and began, as Dennert said, building bridges. The tourism bureau sponsored the transportation. She invited artists and gallery owners to be a part of the tour. She got the best wine from the region and planned to give them as presents.<\/p>\n
That tour became the jumping-off point for the official launch of Art Scene Baja, which has conducted dozens of tours for groups as small as eight people and as large as 45, taking them to Tijuana\u2019s galleries, museums, artist studios and restaurants. It\u2019s all designed to expose people to the richness and depth of Tijuana\u2019s artistic and cultural scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I admire most about Ligia is her ability to see possibilities where others are encumbered by the obvious obstacles,\u201d said Dennert, who added that Santill\u00e1n soon will join the Airport Arts Advisory Committee at the San Diego International Airport. \u201cShe approaches challenges with optimism and a genuine commitment to people, which is why she has become such an important figure in the binational arts and culture community.\u201d<\/p>\n
And to think all this would never have been possible had she not gone to dental school at the University of Baja California. She worked as a dentist for six months and realized her heart just wasn\u2019t in it.<\/p>\n
Her happiness, like she\u2019d known all along, was in the arts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to make my parents proud, so I entered dental school,\u201d Santill\u00e1n said. \u201cI told myself: Yes, I\u2019m going to be a dentist, but of course, I\u2019m going to take time to paint as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
She began taking art classes and fell in love with art. The seeds for a life in the arts, of course, had already been planted by her father. Exposing the young Ligia to the murals and architecture of San Diego opened her eyes to the beauty of art.<\/p>\n
Santill\u00e1n took art classes for four years, learning the basics from Tijuana-born artist Yolanda Casta\u00f1o, a well-known visual artist who taught art and also exhibited in some of the region\u2019s top museums. She took many more classes with artists in Guadalajara and San Miguel de Allende.\n<\/p>\n
Casta\u00f1o \u201cshowed me the ropes of what it\u2019s like being an artist, an active artist,\u201d Santill\u00e1n recalled. \u201cNot just painting and doing the creative process, but really opening my eyes to the world. I remember her saying: \u2018You have to go to another teacher. You have to travel. You have to do this. You have to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the encouragement \u2014 and the nudge \u2014 she needed to find her own artistic voice. These days, she is very much an artist comfortable in her own skin, working in a variety of media, everything from paper to metal and acrylic paint.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach figure, shape and color I incorporate into my work carries meaning and intention behind it,\u201d she writes on her website. \u201cThe dynamics of interpersonal relationships, love with its conflicts and bonds, intrigue me, and I constantly explore my responses to these experiences as a way of releasing my most intimate dilemmas through catharsis, seeking to find balance in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s come a long way from her post-dental school days. Her work has been featured all over the world, from galleries in Point Loma and La Jolla to museums in Tijuana and Colombia.<\/p>\n
These days, she\u2019s busy with Art Scene Baja, which she runs with Berenice Martinez, who came on board for the first tour. \u201cUncover hidden gems of Baja California with art enthusiasts,\u201d its website touts. \u201cJoin us in bridging cities through art and culture! Discover Baja California cultural treasures with personalized art tours.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
In 2018, Santill\u00e1n co-created Arte Estandarte with artist Patty Roa. Today, Santill\u00e1n is the director of the collective, which was formed to bring curated art exhibitions into airport lounges across Mexico.<\/p>\n
What began with four artists at the Chihuahua International Airport has \u201cgrown to include more than 40 artists from both side of the U.S.-Mexico border and nearly 140 artworks presented at different venues,\u201d including airports in San Luis Potosi, Monterrey, Mexico City and Toluca, Santill\u00e1n said. Since 2023, it has moved beyond airports, expanding to venues like museums, galleries and universities.\n<\/p>\n
This past June, she launched GestionARTE<\/a>, an intiative \u201cdesigned to empower artists with the knowledge, tools and connections they need to build sustainable careers and create real opportunities to make a living from their art,\u201d Santill\u00e1n said.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s not enough to just be an artist,\u201d she said. \u201cI have met a lot of artists who have great talent, but it\u2019s not enough to just have great talent to practice your art. You have to be structured. You have to think like an entrepreneur.\u201d<\/p>\n
GestionARTE, which held a binational conference for three days in Tijuana in June, put artists in the same room with lawyers, accountants and other experts who can help artists build \u201csustainable\u201d businesses \u2014 \u201cteaching them how to make art sustainable so they\u2019re not losing money.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI love to get people together,\u201d she said, adding that GestionARTE did exactly that.<\/p>\n
Santill\u00e1n said she considers herself lucky to be able to do everything she\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a reward just to wake up and realize I am doing what I\u2019m passionate about and what I love,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Ligia Santill\u00e1n, it truly is a tale of two cities: Tijuana and San Diego. Born and raised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,967,184939,181,74,84,76,75,420,2422,18740],"class_list":["post-470023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california","tag-entertainment","tag-fall-arts-preview-2026","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-travel","tag-visual-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}