It’s just about harvest time and the Gallery at the Ocean City Arts Center is featuring the perfect exhibit for the season, Baskets! The gallery will be filled with baskets by Mary May, acclaimed New Jersey folk artist specializing in South Jersey basket weaving. She makes baskets that tell the stories of New Jersey baskets and their use, and how they can be used today in the home. The show opens September 2 and runs through September 28. A “Meet the Artists’ reception will be held on Friday, September 8 from 7pm to 8:30pm. The Gallery is located in the Ocean City Arts Center, 1735 Simpson Avenue, 2nd Floor, Ocean City, NJ.
Just announced in July, Mary May is one of ten Premier Award Winners of New Jersey State Council on the Arts Heritage Fellowship. In its effort to honor and preserve the State’s highly diverse cultural heritage, the Council awards New Jersey Heritage Fellowships to master folk and traditional artists. The fellowships recognize artistic excellence, lifetime achievement, and contributions to our state’s traditional arts heritage. The awards are one-time, $20,000 awards to individual practicing New Jersey folk and traditional artists to help them pursue their artistic goals. Mary May is a Master basket maker & artisan with a passion for researching, developing, and teaching the history of the unique South Jersey traditional working basket industry.
Mary has been recognized for her outstanding contribution as a master Folk and Traditional artist and has received many other awards and honors, including the Ocean County Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts. She has been featured in television segments for the New Jersey State of the Arts program, and as the Master Basketmaker through the New Jersey State of the Arts Council. She currently serves as the Vice President of the Penn-Jersey Basketry Guild and has recently been awarded a New Jersey Heritage Foundation Fellowship, for her “artistic excellence, lifetime achievement, and contribution to our state’s traditional arts heritage.” Each of her baskets are made one at a time…much care and precision are used while she construct each basket. Mary considers her hands to be her most valuable tool. Each basket she makes is her favorite.
Since 1988, Mary May has been designing and crafting original, award-winning baskets. Working from her studio in Lacey Township, New Jersey, she has become a well-known and accredited artisan and teacher in Ocean County. Throughout her career, Mary has taught Folk Art Education in grade schools, high schools, adult schools, County parks, art festivals, and to those with special needs. She has exhibited her work at the Peto Museum of Island Heights, the Bay Head Historical Society, and the New Jersey State Museum, to name a few.
The show runs from September 2-28. The Ocean City Arts Center is located on the second floor in the Community Center at 1735 Simpson Avenue, Ocean City, New Jersey 08226. Hours of operation are 9am to 9pm, Monday through Friday and 9am to 3pm on Saturday. The Arts Center is closed on Sunday. For further information, call (609) 399-7628. Check out the Ocean City Arts Center on Facebook and Instagram.
This program is made possible in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
