about

Founded in 2020 by partners Malik D. L. Okoro and nico w. okoro, the bldg fund, llc is an innovation platform for BIPOC artists, entrepreneurs, and neighbors. A collaborative engine for the cultivation of radical ideas, we partner with New Haven’s diverse creative communities to produce place-based projects. We are a Black, family-owned company that lends our collective 30-years’ experience in arts management and business operations to strengthening the foundation of our regional arts and culture and entrepreneurial ecosystems.

nico w. okoro | Founder + Principal

nico w. okoro is an independent arts consultant, curator, educator, and writer. An advocate for artists of the global majority, she works across sectors to build equitable representation within the canons of modern and contemporary art, and nurture reciprocal relationships between artists, communities, and cultural organizations

As a consultant, nico delivers cultural strategy to artist-entrepreneurs, cultural organizations, philanthropic foundations, and government agencies. As an independent curator, she organizes exhibitions for international museums, galleries, and art fairs. She’s served as an adjunct professor of art at the Yale School of Art (2022-present), Brown University (2021), Barnard College (2017-19), and Hartford Art School (2016-21). nico is the author of Museum Metamorphosis: Cultivating Change Through Cultural Citizenship, published by Rowman & Littlefield and the American Alliance of Museums Press (2022).

In recent posts, nico served as 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). She holds an MA in Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship from Goldsmiths, University of London (2011), and a BA in Art-Semiotics from Brown University (2006).

Malik D. L. Okoro | Founder + Principal

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. He also 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.