Huguenot Street in New Paltz. (photo by Lauren Thomas)
Marybeth De Filippis
Less than four months after her hiring as the new executive director of Historic Huguenot Street (HHS), Marybeth De Filippis has parted ways with the organization. According to board president Mary Etta Schneider, “Marybeth De Filippis tendered her resignation to HHS on July 18. This prompted the HHS Executive Board to meet and it was agreed that her resignation would be accepted.”
Following a long and intensive national search, HHS announced De Filippis’ hire with great fanfare on March 24, 2017, hailing her as “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 March press release continued.
Asked about the reasons for the precipitous split, Kaitlin Gallucci, director of Marketing & Communications at HHS, declined to elaborate beyond saying that De Filippis “just wasn’t a good fit” with the organization. She said that Schneider would once again take up the leadership reins at HHS until a suitable replacement can be found.
Historic Huguenot Street is a real gem of the Hudson Valley, and requires someone with the right set of skills to realize its potential. Sometimes, for many sites, it takes a few months to understand all of the particular challenges that it faces, and real character to decide that they’re not right for that one at this time. The core staff is solid and with the right leadership, the sky is the limit for the place. I wish the HHS team nothing but the best.