Nico W. Okoro

About Nico W. Okoro

nico w. okoro is an independent arts consultant, curator, educator, and writer based in New Haven, CT. She is also founder and principal of the bldg fund, llc; a visiting critic at the Yale School of Art; and a board member at the National Academy of Design and the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. As a consultant, nico delivers cultural strategy to artist-entrepreneurs, cultural institutions, government agencies, and philanthropic foundations. An independent curator and curatorial advisor, nico produces exhibitions for—and supports the strategic initiatives of—international museums, galleries and art fairs. Upcoming exhibitions include Embodied Knowledge at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art (Summer 2023) and Century: 100 Years of Black Art at MAM at the Montclair Art Museum (Winter 2024). Recent exhibitions include Made Visible Freedom Dreams at Creative Arts Workshop (Winter 2023), Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere: Freedom Dreams in Contemporary Art at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (Winter 2022); RED at Welancora Gallery (Summer 2021); Home Body at Sapar Contemporary (Spring 2021); and Treacherous with Old Magic at Future Fairs (Winter 2020). nico is the author of Museum Metamorphosis: Cultivating Change Through Cultural Citizenship, published in 2022 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers and the American Alliance of Museums Press. An advocate for women artists and artists of the global majority in all endeavors, nico works to deepen the canon of contemporary art and cultivate values-driven communities of practice. Over the past two decades, nico has driven engagement, strategy and innovation within artist-founded, culturally-specific nonprofits, while supporting the sector at large in designing and advancing cultural equity and social inclusion frameworks. In recent posts, nico served as an Adjunct Professor of Art at Brown University, Barnard College, and Hartford Art School (20••••21); Inaugural Executive Director of NXTHVN (20••••20); Inaugural Director of Public Programs and Community Engagement at the Studio Museum in Harlem (20••••19); Curatorial Director of Rush Arts Gallery (20••••10); and Curatorial Assistant at The Studio Museum in Harlem (20••••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).

Experience

1. Contributor

   The Brooklyn Rail

   Mar 2018 — Present · Brooklyn, NY, US

Education

• Academy of Performing Arts in Prague

  ISP, Advanced Film Production

  2004 — 2005

• Brown University

  BA, Art Semiotics; Literary Arts

  2002 — 2006

• Goldsmiths, University of London

  MA, Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship

  2010 — 2011