Seema Rao, a leading creative mind in the cultural sector, is the Deputy Director & Chief Experience Officer at the Akron Art Museum in Ohio.
Seema Rao has been an innovator in the museum sector both before and after COVID-19. With nearly 20 years of museum experience, she has an extensive background in interpretation, programming, and digital content development for all audiences.
In her 17 years at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Seema led research and content development for many digital projects, including the innovative Gallery One, Asian Odyssey and Studio Play. As such, her work has directly impacted millions of museum visitors. She was also instrumental in developing mobile and off-site museum spaces, like Studio Go.
Seema has also done pioneering work in the area of self care for museum workers and published a book in 2017, Objective Lessons: Self Care for Museum Professions.
With the onset of COVID-19, Seema launched “museum games,” a collaborative approach to creating engaging crosswords. Leading this initiative, she solicited clues from fellow museums based on their collections, then compiled them into a weekly puzzle. This has drawn impressive attention and engagement across social media platforms.