Facilities Director Ed Schulte works with legends at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

As the director of facilities at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Ed Schulte sees music royalty regularly wandering around.

“You have Country Music Hall of Fame members who come in for various events,” he says. “We always want artists and musicians to have a great experience and feel comfortable while they’re here.”

If it feels like Schulte is living out a dream at the Nashville museum, he probably wouldn’t argue. He collaborates on exhibits and displays with some of the biggest names in the music industry on a regular basis.

He lives music history every day. But despite all the brushes with stars, Schulte is still a facilities director at heart whose job also includes ensuring that the museum continues to operate efficiently and safely.

Finding Nashville

Countless aspiring singers over the years have landed in Nashville in hopes of making it big and cashing in on their dreams. Schulte found Nashville as a reboot.

A longtime facilities director in a 37-year career that’s included stops at various facilities in his home state of New York and Florida, Schulte’s wife had recently passed away and he was looking for a change when the Nashville Zoo pursued him through a recruiter in 2018.

Schulte asserted his influence on the zoo immediately, helping to plan its next growth phase and preparing for an accreditation inspection by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The inspection is conducted to ensure that the zoo maintains standards for animal care and welfare as well as offering safe educational experiences for families.

“We faced a substantial workload to complete in just a few months,” says David Oehler, the zoo’s vice president, who was hired around the same time as Schulte. “Ed’s ability to organize the facilities department’s efforts was crucial in successfully navigating the accreditation process. He upgraded both the work order system and emergency response preparations, which are essential to the zoo’s operations.”

Always looking to improve himself, Schulte took a trip to Peru to work with the Rainforest Awareness Rescue Education Center (RAREC), an organization that’s focused on rehabilitating threatened Amazonian wildlife and community education to preserve Peruvian rainforest. RAREC is supported in part by the Nashville Zoo, so the experience not only was fulfilling personally, but it also helped influence the way he and his staff worked back home.

“This is where Ed’s experience and enthusiasm were put to great use,” Oehler says. “His adventures in the Amazon Rainforest, caring for rescued animals and consulting on various construction projects, were truly unique.”

Oehler and Schulte remain close friends, and Schulte appreciated his time at the zoo, enough that when he told his current boss at the museum that he was attending an event at the zoo, she joked that he couldn’t go fearing he would never come back to the museum.

But the physical demands of managing a 188-acre property with more than 3,500 animals was taking its toll as the museum opportunity arose.

Leaping into history

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum attracted 1.6 million visitors in 2023 in a city that’s also home to the Grand Ole Opry, the legendary Ryman Auditorium, honky-tonk bars up and down Broadway, and historic recording studios on Music Row where icons like Dolly Parton recorded hit songs.

Despite the museum’s iconic status in the city and music industry, Schulte’s first visit to the museum was when he started pursuing the job.

“I worked at the zoo for five years, but I had yet to visit,” he says. “So, when I was talking to them about the position, and they said, ‘Would you come over and take a look?’ I fell in love with it.”

Schulte and his team of seven employees manage two properties: the 350,000 square foot museum and hall of fame located in downtown Nashville, and the historic RCA Studio B located on famed Radio Row where Elvis Presley recorded songs. The building now is a classroom and a tourist destination that was visited by more than 106,000 people in 2023.

The hall of fame and museum opened at its current site in 2001. It is connected to a hotel and includes exhibit space, archives, retail space, the Taylor Swift Education Center and two theaters that host live music and cultural events.

While most facility employees at institutional and commercial facilities work behind the scenes, Schulte and his team often work in collaboration with the museum’s curatorial staff updating the regularly changing exhibits, such as a recent display featuring hit recording artist Rosanne Cash, the daughter of country music legend Johnny Cash.

“My staff and I supported museum services in the planning and execution of that exhibit space,” Schulte says. “The museum also recently renovated its retail spaces, and our facilities and operations teams served as liaisons for the project in close collaboration with retail leadership.”

In other public-facing projects, Schulte has worked with the museum’s designers and exhibit designers to reimagine areas of the museum for new exhibits and providing different looks for rotating displays.

“I love creative problem solving,” he says. “That’s my thing. It’s the fun part for me.”

Schulte’s background in working on sets and exhibits was developed during his time at Universal in Orlando, where he honed his skills on how to work with famous directors, producers and actors.

One time, Schulte represented Universal and talked with the city’s fire marshal to gain approval to use tiki torches on stage.

“All of a sudden, the next thing you know, I’m very popular for a couple of days, because I made it happen,” he says. “I love that if we can make something happen, let’s do it.”

He also worked on the show “Slime Time Live” for Nickelodeon, managing logistics on the Universal lot. One of the kids he worked with then was Kenan Thompson, the longest-running cast member on “Saturday Night Live.”

“That’s fun, because that doesn’t happen a lot with facilities people,” Schulte says. “We’re usually behind the scenes, doing the work, and we don’t get the recognition.”

Schulte’s more public role is a result of both the nature of his job responsibilities and a sign of how much the museum’s leadership values his talents and input.

“Ed knows his stuff. He is competent on the technical aspects of his job, trains his staff well, and is a positive motivator and leader,” says Nina Burghard, executive vice president, Finances and Operations. “He also collaborates well with other departments, which is important since he and his team support the entire building and all of our operations, so he must have a good working relationship with leadership across the institution and have the trust and respect of staff.”

Behind the curtains

Making sure artists and musicians have a good experience while onsite and helping build exhibits to honor their legacies produce the wow moments, but Schulte’s work away from the public eye is as important to the operations.

Behind every instrument, item of clothing, video and sound recordings on public display at the museum, there are thousands of other artifacts in the museum’s collection that tell the history and culture of country music in America. The artists who loan or donate their personal possessions place their trust in the museum to take care of it. It’s up to Schulte’s team to maintain the best environment to preserve them.

Maintaining proper humidity levels throughout the museum is critical.

“We have fiddles and mandolins and guitars in our collection and on display, and we ensure there’s no significant fluctuations in humidity,” Schulte says.

One of the first projects that Schulte launched when he started in June 2023 was a long-range asset plan.

Other recent projects include replacing air-handler units and elevator updates. Schulte also added LED lighting and occupancy sensors throughout the building and at the exterior’s entrance for security and energy purposes.

“Ed joined our team just a few years ago, and our building is actively working to update infrastructure system as needed based on the age of our facility,” Burghard says. “He has fine-tuned our long-range building systems plan and is working through the significant capital updates needed to keep a building of this size running smoothly.”

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum was not the first place Schulte visited when he arrived in Nashville. But in two short years it’s become a place he can’t see leaving.

“Nashville has gotten huge, even just in the last six years I’ve been here,” he says. “But the museum is a mainstay and a cultural resource. I see a lot of people coming in from Europe and other areas of the world that just love country music. I didn’t realize how big it is outside of the United States.

“I’m in a happy place. I really thought about staying at the zoo, but I wanted to make this move and I’m glad I did. I do see this place truly as a treasure of Nashville.”

By Dave Lubach, Executive Editor

Dave Lubach is the executive editor of the facilities market. He has more than nine years of experience writing about facility management and maintenance issues. 

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