SEED Trio
Enabling natural leadership abilities to take root and flourish.
The SEED approach to management training emphasizes co-learning, co-creation, and thoughtful risk-taking. We believe management is not an add-on to subject expertise, but a skill in its own right—one that requires humility, attentive listening, and a genuine valuing of others. These foundations make managers more effective in decision-making, project management, and building teams that thrive.
What the SEED Trio Offers
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Management Training: We lead playful, participatory, registration-based management workshops, and these techniques inform bespoke opportunities for your organization. These sessions can include lively explorations of topics such as: balancing institutional and personal values; systems and approaches for inclusive and humane management; and structuring employee onboarding, meetings, and feedback.
Coaching: We are available to coach new managers, as well as experienced managers ready for support. Our coaching is rooted in the beliefs that everyone has their own strengths, that we can all improve, and that management is a skill in its own right.
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Management Training: We all have extensive experience managing museum education programs and staff, and we use it to offer vibrant trainings that explore the specifics of museum education for managers in all kinds of institutions.
Coaching: We are available to coach new managers, as well as experienced managers ready for support. Our coaching is rooted in the beliefs that everyone has their own strengths, that we can all improve, and that management is a skill in its own right.
Program Audit and Recommendations: The first step in good management is good program design. During a program audit we learn about your goals and educational philosophy, the existing structures you have in place, as well as your organization’s specific challenges and opportunities. We make recommendations for strengthening structures, and share tools from our library of templates and resources. The goal of this work is to position your education program to meet your organizational goals.
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If you’re looking for outside voices to bring a new perspective to training your education staff (at any level), we’re available to create bespoke options for what you need.
Our past workshops
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Gallery Education Leadership Institute
The SEED Gallery Education Leadership Institute is a multi-day, in-person experience, crafted to address the complex realities of managing gallery education programs.
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SEED:Management
SEED:Management is a full-day training for cultural organization managers in any department, at any level. It includes topics such as humane management, creating a culture of belonging, and hosting good meetings.
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SEED:Provocations
SEED:Provocations are free, hour-long web convenings to explore big questions that are top of mind for cultural workers.
Topics have included:
• Make Your Meeting Worth Its Time
• Why do we need public tours, anyway?
• How do you keep educators when you can’t pay enough (or anything!)?
• What is DEAI when there is no “DEAI”?
What our participants say
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"Attending these sessions … has been extremely helpful in allowing me to pause the day-to-day routine and actually reflect on what kind of manager I am …. I believed more in myself as a leader and educator after every meeting!"
Karla Aguilar Velasquez, Associate Educator, Guide Program,
St. Louis Art Museum -
![Smiling woman with long brown hair, wearing glasses, a white collared shirt, and a gray blazer, arms crossed, standing in front of a blurred green background.]()
"[The facilitators] were responsive, thoughtful and creative, and each session felt so thoughtfully planned to maximize participant interaction, provoke conversation and get our wheels turning in new directions."
Alison Rossi, Director of Education & Community Connection, Manetti Shrem Museum of Art
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"Rebecca, Rachel, and David facilitated a dynamic program thanks to their years of museum experience and deep passion for education and change management."
Kinneret Kohn, Associate Director for Students and Educators, Art Institute of Chicago
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![Woman with glasses on her head and a black face mask gazing to the right, beside a stained-glass window and a yellow wall, and wearing a burnt orange shirt.]()
"This workshop taught me about myself as a manager through interactive and engaging opportunities to learn from peers in the field... I left with learning more than just about my role in my job, but also about who I am as a leader in my life."
Meg Bowersox, The Museum of the American Revolution
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"Humans learn through experiences, connection, discussion, and being pushed outside their comfort zones. This opportunity allowed participants to do each of these in a scaffolding and comfortable way, gently pushing ourselves."
Anastasia Cote-Rumsey, Education Coordinator at the American Visionary Art Museum 🎨
About the SEED Trio
The SEED Trio – David Bowles, Rachel Ropeik, and Rebecca Shulman – have a combined 57 years of experience in museum management and teaching (we embrace our age, and we also learn new things every day). Prepare yourself for our long list of credentials (in case it helps to justify your professional development expenses). We’ve taught and/or managed teams at:
• The Getty • The Met • The Rubin • Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum • Brooklyn Museum • Peoria PlayHouse Children’s Museum • Aspen Art Museum • Baltimore Museum of Industry • New York Transit Museum • Judd Foundation • Neue Galerie • MFA Boston • Art Institute of Chicago • First Americans Museum • Oklahoma City Museum of Art • Oklahoma Contemporary • Smith College Museum of Art • Hammer Museum • Guggenheim •
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he/him
David has managed teams of staff, fellows, contractuals, interns, and volunteers at the Rubin Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. During his 18+ year museum career, he made his mark teaching and learning alongside visitors of all kinds in the galleries. His approach is grounded in curiosity, and focused on developing shared visions for success with clear, measurable outcomes. His published writing focuses on weaving theory into practice in accessible ways. David lives in Beacon, New York. Learn more at LinkedIn.
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she/her
Rachel is an educator, adventurer, facilitator, experience builder, and pirate 🏴☠️ who guides curious people and their organizations to dance with uncertainty and change. Before setting sail as a consultant, she spent two decades supervising interns, volunteers, fellows, part-time, and full-time staff teams at the Brooklyn Museum, Guggenheim Museum, MoMA, and as Learning Director at the Aspen Art Museum. She leads adaptively, empathetically, and with refreshing directness and humor. Rachel is based in Concord, Massachusetts. You can find out more about her at rachelropeik.com
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she/her
Rebecca Shulman has managed teams at the Guggenheim Museum, Noguchi Museum, and as the Director of the Peoria PlayHouse Children's Museum. She has written about and presented on topics such as engaging front-line staff, measuring impact, careful listening, reflective leadership, and burnout. She has written a book about inquiry-based practices, and has led countless educator trainings and workshops. She now runs Museum Questions Consulting in Baltimore, Maryland.