08 Nov What Brought Me Here: Stephanie Fuentes

Stephanie Fuentes joined Connect the Dots in April 2023 as a Project Manager for Community Engagement. Her background in arts administration serving in roles at a community arts center and in local government brings experience in community engagement from an arts & culture point of view. She is excited to infuse that knowledge into projects ranging from transportation, city planning, and public spaces.

TLDR: My journey to Connect the Dots started as a meandering path, where I found a way to connect my passions that helped me to define a purpose in how I work. 

Meander.

Stephanie standing with her painting diptych above, titled “Landon”.

I moved from small town to small town in my early years because my dad was in the military. We ultimately landed in Central PA, where my parents still live. As a public school kid, most classes I did well in, but art classes actually interested me and I always connected the most with my art teachers. My high school painting teacher was the single adult in my HS years that asked me what I wanted to do after I graduated because she noticed my connection to the arts and encouraged me to keep going. She is the only reason why I thought about going to college, otherwise I planned to follow my dad’s path and join the military.

I eventually made my way to college, earning a Bachelor’s in Fine Art which means I can paint and draw really well. My artwork is inspired by people, facial features, emotive poses, and expressive paint or graphite strokes. At my college I eventually displayed my planning and organization skills by running coffee house poetry readings and working my last two years event-planning for the university.

My only plan after school was getting an internship at an art museum and stress relentlessly about paying back the loans for my liberal arts degree. Lucky for me, I entered post-grad during the great recession and struggled to find anything along with everyone else. I couldn’t even land a volunteer role at my hometown arts center.

Stephanie’s photo during the 2019 unveiling of “MVP” by Brian McCutcheon, depicting the first sculpture of a Black female figure within the City of Philadelphia’s public art collection.

Connection.

I decided graduate school would be the best next step to combine my administrative brain and artistic heart into an Arts Administration degree at Drexel. Enter: Philadelphia. As I completed what is now only a 1/3 of an MS degree and worked simultaneously at a small arts center in the Main Line, I wanted to minimize my geographic circle to live and work in the city. In 2016, I joined the City of Philadelphia workforce at the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy where I would say, I became the person I am today. 

During my time with the City of Philadelphia, I saw up close the ways that planning, policy, legislation, and community and individual advocacy, all relate. I started to understand how so many seemingly disparate subjects, such as immigration and public art or disability rights and craft-making could find common ground and highlight one another. I saw connections in everything. That awareness formed a sense of responsibility in my work because I understood how all I did eventually flowed out to the public and how it could touch so many different areas.

Stephanie conducts a Focus Group at Wynnefield Library.

Purpose.

I have lived and worked in this city for 9 years, and I understand how tired people are with wave after wave of changes and decisions to be made without one’s input or regard. With this role at Connect the Dots, my purpose is to be a good steward of the time, resources, and work of the community or individual, whatever the cause for our time together.

The intention I see at Connect the Dots is to make those touchpoints matter, for our partners, for the person who shows up, and for us to be worthwhile, effective, and insightful. I hope to bring my experience in public service and love of the arts in new ways to create purposeful connections with you.