The Building Fund is an innovation platform that scales concepts into projects and projects into movements, brick by brick.
Based in New Haven, Connecticut–and powered by our city’s fearless artists, entrepreneurs, and neighbors–The Building Fund is equal parts strategic consultancy and cultural engine for the mobilization of community ideas. From collaborating with local artists and libraries to mount major exhibitions and programs, to partnering with economic developers to transform a loading dock into a destination for emerging art and Black culture, The Building Fund boasts a growing portfolio of high-impact, cross-sector initiatives. Founded in 2020, The Building Fund is a M/WBE that proudly serves clients and partners of the global majority, while connecting them to a broad range of networks, opportunities, and resources.
“The Building Fund is the first arts organization to address the needs of Black artists in New Haven in my 25 years of being an artist here.”
— Anonymous 2025 Artists’ Needs Assessment Respondent
Team
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nico w. okoro
FOUNDING CEO
Over the past two decades, nico has worked both independently and as a nonprofit arts leader to drive cultural strategy and community engagement within museums and artist-founded nonprofits. A celebrated cultural strategist, curator, educator, and writer, nico works across sectors to build equitable representation within the canons of modern and contemporary art.
nico is the author of Museum Metamorphosis: Cultivating Change Through Cultural Citizenship (2022), which platforms critical perspectives from across the arts and culture ecosystem, offering tools to reshape cultural institutions into cooperative sites of collective impact and social change.
nico is a former Board Member of The Arts Council of Greater New Haven. In recent posts, she served as a visiting critic at the Yale School of Art (2021-2024); Inaugural Executive Director of NXTHVN (2019-20); Director of Public Programs and Community Engagement at the Studio Museum in Harlem (2014-19); Curatorial Director of Rush Arts Gallery (2007-10); and Curatorial Assistant at The Studio Museum in Harlem (2006-07). nico holds an MA in Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship from Goldsmiths, University of London (2011), and a BA in Art-Semiotics from Brown University (2006).
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Malik D. L. Okoro
CO-FOUNDER
Malik’s interests center on catalyzing entrepreneurship and company creation. Prior to becoming a junior investor at Connecticut Innovations, Malik was manager of business operations at an early-stage biotech, where he delivered valuable insights on strategic workstreams in competitive intelligence and market analysis, coordinated the intellectual property strategy team, and managed the day-to-day of operationalizing discovery research.
Malik previously held roles in business development, in a local startup incubator, and as an operator for a startup consumer-packaged goods company, and as an in-house strategic consultant leading enterprise-level processes.
Malik is a Member-at-Large of the Dixwell/Newhallville Community Economic Development Plan (CEDP) Committee, and a member of the Board of Directors at MakeHaven.
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Brock Bowen
INTERN
Brock is a photographer and student at Hopkins School. His photographs explore paper as a mode of self expression, illustrating how the medium can be used to morph a person's image, as a catalyst for creativity, and as a way to preserve memories and experiences.
Grants & Awards
2024, Sponsor, Office of Arts, Culture & Tourism, City of New Haven
2023, Community & Alumni Award, Yale University Faculty Grant
2023, Neighborhood Cultural Vitality Grant, Office of Arts, Culture & Tourism, City of New Haven
CV
2025
Curator, Liminal Landscapes, Orchid Gallery, The Lab at ConnCORP
Curator, Beholder, Orchid Gallery, The Lab at ConnCORP
Curator, In Our Hands, Orchid Gallery, The Lab at ConnCORP
Curator, Shaunda Holloway: Abstract Rebel, The New Haven Free Public Library, Mitchell Library
Curator, Mythmakers, Orchid Gallery, The Lab at ConnCORP
2024
Guest Curator, Gather, A Better Way Foundation
Curator, Origins, Orchid Gallery, The Lab at ConnCORP
Curator, Gather, Orchid Gallery, The Lab at ConnCORP
Development Consultant & Curator, The Lab at ConnCORP
Judge, Yale Innovators Prize, Tsai CITY
2023
Curatorial Consultant, Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center 55th Anniversary Gala, Bloom
Guest Curator, Erector Square Open Studios
Panelist, Museum Metamorphosis: On Public Art & Cultural Citizenship, Possible Futures Books
Judge, New Haven Civic Innovation Prize, Dwight Hall at Yale
Co-Host, Douglass Day, New Haven Free Public Library, Stetson Branch
Guest Curator, Embodied Knowledge, The Ely Center of Contemporary Art
Guest Curator, Made Visible: Freedom Dreams, Creative Arts Workshop
Juror, Yale Innovation Summit ePoster Competition, Elm Street Ventures
2022
Strategic Consultant, Community Cabinet Research & Development, Our Path Forward, Long Wharf Theatre
Visiting Critic, Yale University School of Art
Panelist, Creative Expression: The Art of Writing it Down for Yourself, Open Source Festival, Artspace
Speaker, The Studio Visit, Open Source Festival, Artspace
Curatorial & Educational Consultant, 30 Americans, New Britain Museum of American Art
Moderator, Curator’s Talk, 30 Americans: Arts on the Block Symposium, New Britain Museum of American Art
2021
Speaker, The Studio Visit, Open Source Festival, Artspace
Panelist, Unapologetically Radical: Truth and Reconciliation, New Haven's Department of Arts & Cultural Affairs in partnership with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas
Panelist, Monuments and Collective Memory, The International Festival of Arts & Ideas
Speaker, A Ripe Moment to Make a Change, Antiracist Artist Podcast
Panelist, Artists Are Lethal, The Lab at Long Wharf Theater
Speaker, LoveBabz LoveTalk, WNHH Community Radio
2020
Project Development Consultant, Allison Minto’s Black New Haven Archive: A Collective Memory Project, Artspace
Panelist, William Lanson Memorial Selection Committee, New Haven City Plan Department