BLDG FUND, LLC is an arts innovation platform that scales concepts into projects, and projects into movements—brick by brick.
Equal parts arts accelerator, cultural engine, and strategic consultancy, we serve Connecticut-based artists, neighbors, and cultural organizations. With over two decades of experience in both the commercial and nonprofit arts and culture sectors, we serve artists through advocacy, mentorship, cultural production, and professional development services, while also platforming their work and connecting them to vital resources and networks. We serve our neighbors by building accessible platforms through which to engage artists as makers, cultural critics, and changemakers, mobilizing art as a catalyst for community impact and social change. And, we serve arts, culture, and community organizations across the region through inclusive growth and engagement strategies, stakeholder analysis and mobilization, and art advisory services, including: art acquisitions and collections management; exhibition design, curation, and on-site installation; and arts writing and publication. Founded in 2020, we are a proud M/WBE committed to resourcing artists and creativepreneurs of the global majority, and ensuring their equitable representation within the broader arts and culture ecosystem.
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“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
nico w. okoro is an independent cultural strategist, curator, educator, and writer. For over two decades, she has advanced engagement strategy and programmatic innovation across major museums and artist-founded nonprofits. Working at the intersection of cultural production, arts equity, and institutional transformation, she builds frameworks that expand representation within the canons of modern and contemporary art.
nico is an adjunct professor of art at Gateway Community College and former critic at the Yale School of Art . She serves on the Board of Directors at the National Academy of Design and the Westville Renaissance Alliance, and has held executive leadership roles at NXTHVN (2019–2020), the Studio Museum in Harlem (2014–2019), and Rush Arts Gallery (2007–2010).
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.
She holds an M.A. in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship from Goldsmiths, University of London (2011), and a B.A. in Art-Semiotics from Brown University (2006).
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David Jon Walker, Graphic Design
David Jon Walker is a graphic designer and educator based in New Haven, CT. He is a Professor of Art in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art, where he received his second MFA in 2023. His award-winning work is recognized by AIGA and the Type Directors Club, and his wide-ranging clientele includes The Poster House, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the National Museum of African American Music, the Country Music Hall of Fame, The Art Institute of Chicago, Princeton University Library, and Yale University.
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Brock Bowen, Intern
Brock Bowen is a student at Hopkins School. His works 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. Each of his pieces are photographed from different angles and perspectives to communicate how complex paper, as a mode of creativity and self expression, truly is.
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
Professional Memberships & Affiliations
2026, Board of Directors, Westville Renaissance Alliance
2006, Entrepreneurship Academy, The Lab at ConnCORP
2006, Collective CT Accelerator, A Partnership Between the State of Connecticut, Yale University, and MOC Innovations
2020-2023, Board of Directors, The Arts Council of Greater New Haven
CV
2026
Speaker, What’s it Really Worth?: Pricing, Purpose, and Pay for Creativepreneurs, The Lab at ConnCORP
Panelist, Finding Your Lane: Business Models, Capacity & Clarity, She Means Business: Women’s History Month Symposium, The Lab at ConnCORP
Facilitator, Long Wharf Theatre, New Haven, CT
Adjunct Professor, Art Appreciation, Gateway Community College
Communications Consultant, Five Frogs, Fairfield CT
2025
Strategic Consultant & Content Lead, Buy New Haven: A Guide to Purchasing Local Art, The Center for Inclusive Growth
Panelist, The Art of Collecting, Bridgeport Arts Council
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
Visiting Critic, Yale University School of Art
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