Jose Cotto (b. 1989, Worcester, MA) is an interdisciplinary artist and designer from Great Brook Valley. His creative practice explores relationships between people, place, and time – often integrating poetry, fabrication, architectural design, mark-making, and lens-based media. Cotto’s work has been featured by Paper Monuments, Prospect New Orleans, ASHE, Newcomb Art Museum, Antenna Gallery, and the Contemporary Art Center. He earned a Masters of Architecture from Tulane University (2014) and BFA in Design + Architecture from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2011). Cotto is a Salzburg Global Seminar Cultural Innovators Fellow (2018) and was an Artist In Residence at the Joan Mitchell Center (2022) and A Studio in the Woods (2022, 2024).

Prior to joining Utile as Director of Community Engagement + Design Justice, he was part of the team at the Small Center for Collaborative Design at Tulane University’s School of Architecture. There, he led exhibits and public programming that facilitated connections between academia, local artists, and community partners to expand conversations around the built environment. Additionally, he supported the center’s design + build and visioning projects, contributed to documentation and communication efforts, and led a yearly seminar focused on public space, public interest design, and interdisciplinary practices.