Amherst Historical Society and Museum

History Begins at Home

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Fiber Artists: Martha May

Martha May’s life interests have been equally divided between Art and Music. Her experiences in the art world have been vast and rewarding and include: printmaking, clay sculpture, crochet sculpture, machine quilting and tapestry weaving.

Most of her work has the common thread of “repetition in the process.” During her clay years it was pinch and coil, in printmaking it was hundreds of lines and dots, in machine quilting hundreds of the same image stitched on whole cloth creating intriguing surfaces, and with tapestry weaving the over and under movement of the warp with the weft to create paintings with yarn.

Martha May studied at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C., majoring in clay sculpture. After finishing her studies at the Corcoran, she remained in D.C., and continued to work in 3D using cloth and plaster. When married with a young family, her creative time had some limits, so she took on quilting. Her quilting interests lasted well over 25 years until she discovered tapestry weaving.

Her inspiration is the Flax Comb/Hatchel with its metal teeth mounted on a wooden block. It is not the prettiest of tools but the points play into “the repetition in the process.” Weaving the same thing over and over again.

summer-weaving
Martha May, “Summer Weaving”, wool.

About the Museum

Visit the Amherst History Museum, located at the Simeon Strong House, 67 Amity St., Amherst MA. We held our first exhibition in 1899, received our charter in 1903, and are celebrating over 100 years of the Society’s ownership of the c.1759 Simeon Strong House.

The Amherst History Museum is closed for the 2020 season due to the coronavirus. You can find directions here.

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Support Us


The Amherst History Museum accepts donations of any size at any time of the year. We hold our Annual Appeal in late November and renew all memberships in the Spring.

A gift to the Amherst History Museum, whether in memory of a loved one or in honor of a special accomplishment, is always a unique way to help the Amherst Community and recognize an extraordinary individual.

BECOME A MEMBER

Amherst A to Z

Want to know where Amherst’s Cold War bunker is located? Or where the “curragh” district of Amherst was? Or learn about a local factory that made “collapsing skirts!”

These are all entries under the letter “C” in the book Amherst A to Z, written by Elizabeth Sharpe. The book is illustrated with pictures of artifacts from the Amherst History Museum, historic images from the Jones Library’s Special Collections, as well as photographs of our town and the folks who live here.

BUY THE BOOK

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