Rachel Ropeik

Educator• Adventurer• Facilitator• Experience Builder• Pirate🏴‍☠️ strategic, playful, progressive approaches to catalyze change in arts and culture (she/her)

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

📣My HIRE ME thread📣

WHO I AM:
I’m an educator, adventurer, facilitator, experience builder, and pirate 🏴‍☠️ who brings strategic, playful, and progressive approaches to catalyzing change in arts and culture.

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

I love reminding folks to take charge of their own narratives instead of being defined by old stories.

These days, I introduce myself (professionally) by saying that I coach curious people and their organizations to dance with uncertainty and change.

What do you say?

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

I love the Olympics, so my metaphor for what I want success to look like in 2026 is that I want to be one of the athletes who shows up without medal expectations and has a blast when they do their best. Like Julia Sauter.

What do you want success to look like this year?

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

It was a gift to leave the snowy polar vortex behind to swim and paddle in the Caribbean and relax around Miches, where development still hasn't overtaken the lush landscape.

If you need a dose of sunshine via photos, I've put a selection on my blog 👉🏻 https://t.co/LtOuq83MCm

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

In January I ran the Gallery Education Leadership Institute with my SEED Trio colleagues, @Rebecca Shulman and @David Bowles.

1 person said: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."

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

Attunement is my word of 2026.
It's "harmonizing with another's state" &
"put in desirable condition" & even
"set a machine in order for work".

After 4 entrepreneurial years I want more peace.

I wrote more about how I'm starting my 2026 here 👉🏻 https://t.co/OBbV4v7EgS

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

My goo phase is slowly resolidifying itself. I'm working to leave behind the "throwing spaghetti at the wall" phase of my business where I feel like I've lived for the past few years. I'm composting some offers to germinate others.

Read more 👉🏻 https://t.co/1qRjcwWO8p

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

Periodic reminder: don't monetize your hobbies!
I love my little book cover sketches. They bring me so much joy without any kind of monetizable outcome.

These came from this year's annual 3-week reading retreat. Read more 👉🏻 https://t.co/uABlFhYD19

#Entrepreneurship

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

My SEED Trio work with Rebecca Shulman and David Bowles is a way I give back to the museum education field.

In Jan we're hosting a multi-day Gallery Education Leadership Institute for museum ed managers to help their leadership skills flourish.

👉🏻 https://t.co/1qRjcwWO8p

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

I've got updates to share, and none of them fit neatly together into a single post. So I gave myself some creative constraints to write succinctly about how 2025, My Ballast Year is going as we head into Q4. https://t.co/1qRjcwWO8p

#Entrepreneurship #SoloBusinessOwner

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

I just finished leading prototyping sessions with guides and staff at the Boston Public Library. We used visitor personas & scenarios plus creative constraints to brainstorm alternative guided experiences they might offer library patrons.

Read more 👉🏻 https://t.co/Sj3GzlbIrY

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

Working on my coaching HQ Notion board (kindly set up by Jessica Abel with pirate theme imagery) has been a bit like therapy. Lots of Big Questions:
How do I want work to be part of my life?
What is fun for me that others struggle with?

Read more 👉🏻 https://t.co/l7ibUnExtr

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

Weather permitting, I like to work as much as I can on the back porch. I'm leaning into summer-induced softness for leadership lessons.

The Discerning Leader’s Guide to Soft Summer Striving
▸ https://t.co/2kwl1a5JGb

#Entrepreneurship #PortfolioCareer #DiscerningLeadership

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

As I transition through this phase of caterpillar soup, I'm leaning into abundance and paying people I trust for help.
You can read more 👉🏻 https://t.co/zPHVvOskjn

And you can be part of the cycle of abundance, yourself by offering your resources to someone you can help.

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

I'm nervous about admitting publicly that I need to shift things in my business. And about figuring out what problem(s) I'm in the best position to help other people solve.

Read more 👉🏻 https://t.co/rOJdVaE3b4
or
Reply here with your answer 👇🏻

#BusinessDevelopment

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

My portfolio career of projects is not well balanced right now. Institutional clients in the USA don't seem to have the appetite for change/experimentation in cultural organizations. Imagine that!

Read how I'm shifting 👉🏻 https://t.co/vULfeoSTWL

#BusinessDevelopment

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

While I continue to nurture the communal connection & networking that feeds me, I’m also looking at what ideas I can compost for new energy resources.

It's time to rework my business.

Read more 👉🏻 https://t.co/VHGWPrnnwn

#BusinessDevelopment #entrepreneurship

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

In the last few weeks, it's been hard to distill ideas into things I wanted to say, and I fell off the wagon of my regular public writing practice.

Actually it's my caterpillar goop time.

Into the Chrysalis: https://t.co/ugxVECOVcW

#BusinessDevelopment #entrepreneurship

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

In the name of dreaming broadly as an experimenter, I've rethought CARE, my membership group, and am shifting it into an annual cadence instead, to bud and grow along with the new spring life outside.

Read more 👉🏻 https://t.co/wplgjgsB3u

#VirtualCommunity #CareWork

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

Where do you turn to when things around you seem grim? (Truly, I'm earnestly curious. Comment and let me know.)

I read a lot, so that's one direction I've been turning. Here's one quote I'm appreciating.

Read more 👉🏻 https://t.co/wplgjgsB3u

#VirtualCommunity #CareWork

[Rachel Ropeik @TheArtRopeik]

I've been returning to
@dviyer’s Social Change Ecosystem Map.

None of us can be changemakers toward justice by trying to do everything. Instead, Iyer lays out 10 roles and invites us to figure out what we contribute to the whole.

Read more 👉🏻 https://t.co/LVAybYhg64
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