about

Jessica Fuentes is an artist, arts professional, and arts writer based in Fort Worth, Texas. She holds an MA in Art Education with a Museum Certification from the University of North Texas, where her thesis, Learning From Each Other: Narrative Explorations of Art Museum Self-guided Materials, was recognized with the Most Innovative Thesis award. She also earned a BA in Art & Performance from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Jessica serves as the Artist Engagement Manager for ACLU of Texas, where she oversees the organization’s artist-in-residence program and other artist initiatives.

Formerly, she held the positions of Editor-in-Chief and News Editor at Glasstire, an online magazine covering Texas art, where she continues to contribute articles, exhibition reviews, opinion pieces, and artist profiles. In 2023, Jessica was awarded The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant to support a series of articles highlighting Texas art spaces founded by artists of color. In 2025, she received a Rabkin Foundation Travel Grant to support arts writing.

Her scholarly work includes the article The Need for Educators of Color in K-12 Museum Tours in the Journal of Museum Education (2021) and the chapter Representation Matters: Diversifying School Tour Curriculum in Creating Meaningful Museum Experiences for K-12 Audiences, edited by Tara Young. She co-authored the instructional resource Redefining “American”: Expanding the Canon by Connecting With Students’ Lives in Art Education (2022) and Shared Authority as Pedagogy and Practice in Viewfinder: Reflecting on Museum Education (2023).

Prior to her experience in publication, Fuentes held various positions, including Executive Director of Kinfolk House, a community arts space founded by Sedrick and Letitia Huckaby; Manager of School & Community Outreach at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art; and Manager of the Center for Creative Connections and Gallery Interpretation at the Dallas Museum of Art. With over 15 years of experience in art education, she has worked with learners of all ages in formal and informal settings. Throughout her museum career, Fuentes developed programs connecting artists with local communities, collaborated with cross-departmental teams, supervised staff and interns, developed systems for evaluation and project management, and prioritized visitor-centered experiences.

An active artist, Fuentes’ work has been featured throughout North Texas for over a decade. She is a former member of the F6 Gallery Collective and 500X Gallery. Her series My Only Homeland was published in Deep Red Press (2018), and she served as an Artist-in-Residence at Tarrant County College South Campus during the 2019–2020 academic year. In 2021, her work was included in the public art exhibition New Stories: New Futures, curated by Dr. Lauren Cross. In 2023, Jessica and Dallas-based performance artist Christian Cruz received a grant from the U.S. Latinx Art Forum’s Artist Mentorship Program, where they exchanged knowledge about their respective disciplines.

In addition to her professional and artistic roles, Jessica is actively engaged in the arts community, serving on the Fort Worth Art Commission, the DFW Airport’s public art advisory panel, and the board of Make Art with Purpose (MAP).

When she’s not writing, teaching, or creating, Jessica enjoys spending time with her family traveling, exploring art museums, or working in their home studio.

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