An Award That Honors Master Craftspeople

The Face of Philanthropy

July 9, 2024

At first blush, the funding interests of the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation seem like an eclectic mix — field-based science, craft, teaching, and protecting the natural world.

What ties the areas together is that they all require hands-on commitment from people who have a deep dedication to their field and that they’re often underfunded and underappreciated, says program officer Rebekah Frank. That’s why supporting innovative people in those fields is a big part of the foundation’s grant making.

“We want to support people first and foremost, rather than ideas or outcomes,” Frank says. “We believe that creative people who explore the world are discovering new meanings about how the world works, and that creative, curious people who are doing interesting and unique work can be found in really unexpected places.”

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The funding interests of the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation are an eclectic mix — field-based science, crafts, teaching, and protecting the natural world.

“We want to support people first and foremost, rather than ideas or outcomes,” Frank says. “We believe that creative people who explore the world are discovering new meanings about how the world works and that creative, curious people who are doing interesting and unique work can be found in really unexpected places.”

One way the foundation does that is through prizes like the Maxwell/Hanrahan Awards in Craft program, which is administered by United States Artists and currently in its third year. In May, the foundation named five recipients, each of whom received an unrestricted $100,000 award.

“We trust that people know what they need,” Frank says. “One of the biggest things we’ve heard from the awardees is that the award provides them time.”

Some honorees have paid off debt or used the money for a down payment on a house, while others have gone back to school, purchased equipment for their practice, or focused on a new series of work.

One of the 2024 award winners, Ibrahim Said, shown here, is a third-generation ceramicist who learned traditional pottery methods from his father growing up in Egypt. Now based in North Carolina, Said’s elegant vases are in museum collections around the world.

Said says the award feels like recognition for his body of work and the sacrifices he’s made for his craft — and that it’s a chance for him to reinvest in his imagination. “Life is not easy, especially when you’re working with art,” he says. “It just makes you continue. You feel like you’re in the right place.”

Ibrahim Said is a ceramicist whose practice recognizes the rich cultural heritage, techniques and history of the pottery industry from his hometown of Fustat, Egypt. Combining wheel throwing, hand-building and surface adornment Ibrahim pushes the physical limits of clay while engaging, respecting and building upon a lineage of Egyptian pottery. Said is a recipient of the 2024 Maxwell/Hanrahan Awards in Craft.