Morrisville sculptor Thea Alvin, who works in stone and stained glass, has been awarded $100,000 in unrestricted funding through the Maxwell/Hanrahan Awards in Craft.

According to program manager Rebekah Frank, the California-based Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation aims to “support people first and foremost — rather than ideas or outcomes — to invest in creative people who explore the world and, in doing so, help uncover new meaning about how it works.”

Beginning in 2022, the foundation has granted the awards to five exceptional craftspeople annually. This year’s cohort also includes ceramic sculptor Cristina Córdova of Penland, N.C.; ceramicist Ibrahim Said of Greensboro, N.C.; glass sculptor Nisha Bansil of the Catskills, N.Y.; and New York City-based sculptor Raul De Lara.

Alvin has been working with stone for 40 years — since she was a teenager mixing mortar for her father, who was also a stonemason. Since about 2000, she has focused more on artwork than on practical projects such as walls and patios.

Alvin doesn’t use mortar in her stonework, relying instead on ancient techniques to shape, fit and secure her loops and archways with gravity. Several of her sculptures and installations may be familiar to Vermonters, including “Time and Again” at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester and an arched wall in Burlington’s Intervale. She has created a sculpture park at her home in Morrisville, which visitors can see by appointment.

Some of Alvin’s projects are large-scale earthworks that interact not just with people walking through them but also with the elements and time of year. As she describes it, “I build clocks — deep time stone clocks. Most every piece has an alignment with a solar event or a day of importance to the owner. Each story is a secret kept within the structure until the day of its importance.”

One such piece, commissioned as a memorial at Blackberry Mountain in Tennessee, marks a husband's birth and death dates with light. As Alvin described it, the stone is precisely placed so that “the sun will come and strike [his wife] there in her chest to warm her and remind her of all of the importance of his life, and hers.” Alvin likes the idea that the particular story of each piece will fade with time, creating a mystery for future archaeologists.

Alvin has used, taught and learned about historical building techniques on sites internationally, including in the tiny village of Ghesc in northern Italy. Run by the Canova Foundation, the village is a "laboratory" working to restore the 15th-century buildings while learning about building techniques of the time. Canova partners with institutions such as Waitsfield's Yestermorrow Design/Build School, where Alvin teaches. She hopes the award will allow her time to return to Ghesc.

Her other plans for using the award funds may include more volunteering and being able to host visitors at her sculpture park. But one of the most unusual aspects of the award is that the artist doesn’t have to produce anything specific. Beyond the funding, Alvin has been impressed with how supportive the foundation has been. Organizers have introduced this year’s cohort to past recipients and offered financial advice and other services.

She still doesn’t know who initially nominated her for the award.

“It’s so unexpected. I feel so grateful, and so humbled, to be recognized for work that I'm doing,” Alvin said. “It just reminds me to always be genuine and humble and true to everybody … This award allows me to take a little bit of time to breathe and to be an observer of the world around me and not just a laborer within it.”