Isabel Cisterna is an artistic director, actor, playwright and one of the Waterloo Region’s most renowned community builders. Isabel studied theatre at the Catholic University in Chile where she cut her teeth as a street performer before immigrating to Canada in 1991.

Isabel founded Neruda Arts in 2001 and has served as it Artistic Director since that time. Under her leadership, Neruda Arts has grown as an organization to produce a range of programming that includes high calibre world music artists visual art exhibitions, theatre and dance performances, and documentary film making. 

In addition to producing arts events, Isabel also develops Neruda Arts’ personal and creative expression workshops for youth, and professional development workshops for new Canadian and emerging artists. Isabel has led expressive art therapy programs for Extend-a-Family Waterloo, the Multicultural Centre and the KW Sexual Assault Centre, and for Wilfrid Laurier University. Isabel draws on her experience as an immigrant to mentor new Canadian artists and to lead workshops for marginalized groups. This experience is brought to life in her one-woman play, I Call Myself Isabel, which won a First Place Award in the 2001, New Works Festival.

Isabel has served as a member of the Waterloo Region Arts Fund Board, a Grant Committee member of the Kitchener-Waterloo Community Foundation, and as a Grant Committee member with the Ontario Arts Council. She has received numerous awards for her service to the community including Leading Women Building Communities (2014), WOW Award for Creative Arts (2013), Top 25 Canadian Immigrant (2012), Government of Chile award for achievement as a Chilean living abroad (2011), Oktoberfest Woman of the Year for Arts & Culture (2010), Waterloo Region Record 40 Under 40 (2009), and K-W Arts Awards for both the Arpillera: Tapestry of life Project (2008) and for Mentor of the Year (2007).