New director in charge of arts and crafts and weapons collection – predecessor Wolfgang Glüber retired at the end of August
Dr. Sophie Borges is the new head of collections at the Hessian State Museum Darmstadt (HLMD). She will be responsible for the department of decorative arts from the 16th to the 20th centuries as well as the weapons collection. Borges succeeds Dr. Wolfgang Glüber, who retired on August 31, 2026.
Their main areas of focus include fashion history, courtly representation culture, and the arts and crafts of Art Nouveau.
Art Nouveau and fashion history in focus
“With Dr. Sophie Borges, we are gaining a proven expert in arts and crafts, fashion history, and courtly representation,” says Julia Hillebrand, deputy director of the Hessian State Museum Darmstadt. She also points to Borges’ curatorial experience.
The new head of collections intends to focus on, among other things, Art Nouveau and Art Nouveau jewelry, early 17th-century fashion, and objects from the 16th to 20th centuries. A key emphasis will be placed on presenting the collections in permanent and special exhibitions.
Borges also sees a connection to the present in arts and crafts. Besides their design, historical objects convey knowledge about technical developments, the handling of materials, and earlier manufacturing processes.
Stations in Weimar, Berlin and Eutin
Sophie Borges studied art history and philosophy at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. In 2015, she received her doctorate with a dissertation on the representation of knowledge in scholarly portraits around 1800. Her research was supported by a three-year research grant from the Gerda Henkel Foundation.
Borges then worked as a research assistant at the Klassik Stiftung Weimar. There, she was involved in the exhibition projects "You are Faust. Goethe's Drama in Art ," which was created in 2018 in collaboration with the Kunsthalle Munich, and "Goethe. Transformation of the World," which was realized in 2019 together with the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn.
In 2020, she moved to the Berlin State Library for an exhibition project on E.T.A. Hoffmann and art. From 2021 to 2026, Borges was curator and custodian of the Eutin Castle Foundation. There, she oversaw the permanent exhibition and developed special exhibitions and new presentations.
Her research areas include the history of fashion since 1600, and in particular the significance of clothing in relation to social and political power structures. Further areas of focus are the material culture of courtly representation and the decorative arts of Art Nouveau.
(DARMSTADT – RED/HLMD)
Featured image: Dr. Sophie Borges in the Art Nouveau department. Photo: A.-S. Ebert, HLMD
