When she was still a high school student in Falmouth, Maine, Martha Mayo 鈥�92 paid $2.50 for a print by a then-unknown artist in Portland, Jon Legere. She paid another $2.50 to frame it.
That was Mayo鈥檚 first art purchase, but she鈥檚 been buying original art from 鈥渟tarving artists鈥� and supporting the arts ever since. The retired director of UML鈥檚 now owns nearly 500 original artworks, most of them by local artists, including UML students and faculty members.
鈥淚 just buy art. I feel like it鈥檚 my job,鈥� she jokes. 鈥淚鈥檓 eclectic. I like anything, everything. I buy what speaks to me.鈥�
She pauses, then adds, 鈥淣ot as many landscapes: They don鈥檛 say, 鈥楾ake me home鈥� as often as other things do.鈥�
Mayo started out small, with prints. Now she has paintings, photos, collages and small sculptures on every wall, shelf, counter and tabletop in her Lowell home. Big sculptures adorn her backyard.
She has volunteered for, donated to and served on the boards of numerous arts and community organizations, including the Brush Art Gallery and Studios, the Arts League of Lowell and Western Avenue Studios.
She has also endowed funds at UMass Lowell to support the Art and Design Department; at the University of Maine to support the library鈥檚 special collections; and at the Greater Lowell Community Foundation to support art and education.
She established the Martha Mayo Endowment Fund for the Department of Art and Design with a $25,000 gift in 2017 and then pledged another $100,000, matched by $50,000 from the state. She recently included another $100,000 for the fund in her estate planning.
Mayo, who graduated as a history major from the University of Maine, next earned a master鈥檚 in library science at the University of Illinois. A friend in that program who had earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree at what was then Lowell Technological Institute suggested Mayo apply for a job opening at Lydon Library.聽
Mayo was hired as a special collections librarian in 1972, and in 1992, she earned a Master of Education degree at UML.
As an archivist, educator and historian, Mayo worked with a team to start the former Lowell Museum in Wannalancit Mills. Later, she provided assistance, including historical photos and documentation, to the late U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas and others working to establish , which opened in 1978.
With the merger of Lowell Tech and Lowell State and the university鈥檚 growth, the university library鈥檚 special collections expanded, too. In 1988, at the urging of Tsongas and the national park鈥檚 leaders, the university agreed to move the library鈥檚 historical collections to a new building in the national park鈥檚 Patrick J. Mogan Cultural Center.
鈥淭hey really wanted a lot of the special collections to be downtown and accessible to high school students and external researchers, as well as UMass Lowell students,鈥� Mayo says.
Mayo oversaw the move and presided at the Center for Lowell History until her retirement in 2015. Shortly afterward, she established the endowment fund.
鈥淚鈥檝e always donated to the university since I was working there, but when I retired, I decided I wanted to do something more legacy, more permanent,鈥� she says.
Every year, the Martha Mayo Endowment Fund is used by the Department of Art and Design for special programming, such as a field trip to MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts; a special master class with classic Cambodian ceramicist and adjunct faculty member ; and guest lectures by outside artists.聽
鈥淚鈥檓 certainly interested in students and scholarships, but I saw the need for a wraparound fund,鈥� she says.
Mayo has also sponsored other one-time university projects outside the fund, including a permanent display about , the first Black student to graduate from the university鈥檚 teaching college, in 1914.