NEWS RELEASE: Historic Huguenot Street Hires Executive Director Marybeth De Filippis

NEW PALTZ, NY (March 24, 2017) – Concluding a national search, Historic Huguenot Street is pleased to announce the hiring of its new Executive Director, Marybeth De Filippis.

Ms. De Filippis is an award-winning museum professional and scholar specializing in the material culture and history of early New York. She served for eight years at the New-York Historical Society, where she was most recently Associate Curator of American Art and former Manager of the Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture.

While at the New-York Historical Society, Ms. De Filippis conceived the groundbreaking and triple-award-winning Dutch New York Between East and West: The World of Margrieta van Varick, for which she served as co-curator of the exhibition and co-editor and a major author of the catalogue, the latter of which was published by Yale University Press, and project co-organizers, the Bard Graduate Center and the New-York Historical Society.

Additional exhibitions and permanent installations to which Ms. De Filippis contributed include New York & The Nation; the DiMenna Children’s History Museum; Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery; New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War; Slavery in New York; Historical Fictions: Edward Lamson Henry’s Paintings of Past and Present; and Nature and the American Vision: The Hudson River School at the New-York Historical Society. Moreover, De Filippis contributed to the New-York Historical Society’s multi-year strategic planning process, which culminated in its 2011 Grand Reopening, and further served on its website redevelopment committee. 

Ms. De Filippis has held Board of Trustee positions at the New Amsterdam History Center, Huguenot Heritage, and Henry Hudson 400; served as an advisor for Peabody Essex Museum’s recent exhibition Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age; and has undertaken independent art historical, conservation, and provenance research projects. Her early career included positions in the banking and securities industries, as well as substantial residential design, space planning, and renovation experience, skills that will be drawn upon as Historic Huguenot Street prepares to embark on a Master Site Plan.

Ms. De Filippis holds a MA in American Material Culture from the Bard Graduate Center in New York City and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  Of Huguenot descent, Ms. De Filippis is a member of The Huguenot Society of South Carolina, New Netherland Institute, Association of Historians of American Art, and the Association of Art Museum Curators, among other industry organizations.

“HHS is excited to begin a new chapter with Marybeth De Filippis at the helm,” said Mary Etta Schneider, Board Chair. “Our Search Committee and Board of Trustees voted unanimously in favor of hiring Ms. De Filippis due to her exceptional museum-related credentials, impressive work experience, strong leadership qualities, significant strategic planning and financial skills, and her passion to see Historic Huguenot Street ‘soar.’ This is an important time for the organization, and the board and staff look forward to working with Marybeth.”

“I am truly honored to be joining the dynamic and committed Board and team at Historic Huguenot Street” remarked Ms. De Filippis. “My relationship with the Museum began more than ten years ago, when I first conducted research in its exceptionally important colonial New York manuscript collection. I was immediately both enchanted by its charming stone houses and astonished at the remarkable survival of this intact seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century settlement. The Historic Huguenot Street team has ambitious plans to build on already strong community and national partnerships to expand the reach of this great cultural treasure. I’m thrilled that I’ve been given the opportunity to help them further develop and realize these expected transformative goals.”

Ms. De Filippis will begin work in late April, just prior to the organization’s inaugural Spring Celebration and Opening Day.

A National Historic Landmark District, Historic Huguenot Street is a 501(c)3 non-profit that encompasses 30 buildings across 10 acres that was the heart of the original 1678 New Paltz settlement, including seven stone houses that date to the early eighteenth century.  It was founded in 1894 as the Huguenot Patriotic, Historical, and Monumental Society to preserve the nationally acclaimed collection of stone houses. Since then, Historic Huguenot Street has grown into an innovative museum, chartered as an educational corporation by the University of the State of New York, that is dedicated to protecting our historic buildings, conserving an important collection of artifacts and manuscripts, and promoting the stories of the Huguenot Street families, from the sixteenth century to today. 

###

Contact
Kaitlin Gallucci
Director of Marketing & Communications
(845) 255-1660
media@huguenotstreet.org