May Babcock

May Babcock is a papermaking artist who uses foraged natural materials to craft textured sculptures and installations. Each paper work explores place, belonging, and local ecologies. Babcock has exhibited nationally and internationally at the Boston Athenaeum (Boston, MA), RISD Museum (Providence, RI), Fitchburg Art Museum (Fitchburg, MA), The Center for Book Arts (New York, NY), Ogden Museum of Southern Art (New Orleans, LA) and National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute (Taipei, TW). In 2026, The Trustees (MA) commissioned an original site-specific installation for an Art & the Landscape exhibition. Forthcoming in 2026-27 is a solo exhibition at the New Bedford Whaling Museum (New Bedford, MA).  Her work has been collected by RISD Museum, Boston Athenaeum, and numerous private collections. Babcock has installed public art at Brown University, Illinois State Museum, Rhode Island State House, and T.F. Green International Airport.

Awards include a Creative Community Fellowship from National Arts Strategies, and the Citizen’s Citation for Environmental Education from the mayor of Providence RI. The artist was the keynote speaker for The American Chestnut Foundation MA/RI Annual Meeting, the keynote for the Rhode Island Environmental Education Association Annual Summit, and spoke at the 2026 Paul J. Cronin Memorial Lecture at deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum. Her work has been featured in the Boston Globe, Art New England, Hand Papermaking, Boston Art Review, and Artscope. She has taught papermaking at Rhode Island School of Design, SMFA at Tufts University, Penland School of Craft, and Women’s Studio Workshop. Babcock has been artist-in-residence at the White Mountain National Forest, Cape Cod National Seashore, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park. She was the guest editor for the “Ecology and Paper” issue of Hand Papermaking magazine, and is a certified invasive plant manager and master gardener. She founded Paperslurry.com, a hand papermaking blog.