The Maryland Historical Society is changing its focus from one that emphasizes decorative arts to a more broad-based social history approach, director Dennis Fiori announced yesterday.
The far-ranging plan to restructure the society will result in two key personnel changes: Chief curator Jennifer Goldsborough will leave the society Jan. 1, and former curator Gregory Weidman has moved to an administrative position.
"We have great people working here, but the society is not structured in ways to meet its goals of interpreting Maryland's past in the broadest way," said Mr. Fiori, explaining that the curatorial changes are part of a restructuring plan he's been developing since coming to the society from the Concord Museum in Massachusetts in March.
Mr. Fiori has said he wants the society to broaden the scope of its exhibitions in areas such as ethnic and religious history as well as establish itself as a "statewide institution."
Mr. Fiori said that he had no intention of abandoning the society's past interest in collecting and exhibiting fine and decorative arts but that he wanted more of the collection to be shown, with enhanced interpretations of it.
"We only have about 7 percent of our collection on view," he said. "I would like to show more material from the library, more fine arts, more prints and drawings, and things from our photo collection. I would like to explore the lives of the people behind the artifacts, and what the paintings say about the lives of the people [in them] and the evolving state of Maryland. I'm interested in connecting people of the past with people living today."
The director said: "We have a strong curatorial department, but its expertise is mainly in the decorative arts. The staff lacked among its curators one with a strong background in social history. Many objects in Maryland's history are best handled by someone with a social history background."
The changes announced yesterday will also affect the director's job.
"There is no middle management here," said Mr. Fiori, "with the result that the director gets bogged down in areas of day-to-day operation . . . and he or she cannot move ahead on the major tasks to raise funds, promote the institution, plan for the future and participate in the cultivation of supporters."
Over the next two years, "as funds become available," Mr. Fiori intends to create four departments -- finance and administration; library; advancement; and collections and interpretation -- to be headed by associate directors. Two are already in place: Kate Gordon is associate director for finance and management, and Penny Catzen is associate director for the library. The library and the museum are the two major components of the society.
The advancement position, which will oversee development, marketing, public relations, special events and special projects, will not be filled immediately. "During this transition time, I want to put a lot of my own efforts into those areas," Mr. Fiori said.
The museum's chief curator position, held by Ms. Goldsborough for the past 6 1/2 years, has been eliminated. Mr. Fiori said a national search will be launched for an associate director of collections and interpretation.
"It is a position I have created because we felt education programs, publications and exhibitions should operate as a unit," he said. The new position will require "a broader background and stronger management skills" than Ms. Goldsborough's.
A decorative arts specialist with strong interests in silver, textiles and ceramics, Ms. Goldsborough has been at the society 15 years. "I endorse Dennis' general plans for the society's future and have nothing further to say at this time," she said yesterday.
Mr. Fiori praised Ms. Goldsborough's performance, saying that her "record here has been an excellent one."
Ms. Weidman will become assistant director for special projects, a position like one she requested shortly after Mr. Fiori arrived.
"I felt I had done curatorially what I really wanted to do," Ms. Weidman said. "I am pleased that Dennis thought I could work in a different realm at the historical society. I think there's an enormously exciting future ahead." Her new duties will include fund-raising and transition of the curatorial department.
As curator, Ms. Goldsborough's chief area of concentration was with the silver collection, and she produced the 1983 exhibit and catalog "Silver in Maryland" and the recent exhibit and catalog "Lavish Legacies: Baltimore Album Quilts, 1845- 1855." Ms. Weidman's specialty was furniture, and she produced the 1984 book "Furniture in Maryland, 1740-1940" and the recent exhibit and catalog "Classical Maryland, 1815-1845."
The society has not had a curator specializing in fine arts -- primarily painting -- since former chief curator Stiles T. Colwill left in 1988.
The restructuring comes in the wake of the city's donation to the society last month of the former Greyhound Corp. bus service terminal on Park Avenue behind the society's present complex on Monument Street. The 19,000-square-foot building will be devoted largely to exhibits.
"I want to have an introductory exhibit on 350 years of Maryland history in the Greyhound building," Mr. Fiori said. "We could open up the doors, have a glass wall, and have in there a sailing ship or a steam engine, a magnet for people, and have a lot of interactive, exciting presentations of Maryland history."