Our Supporters

We support the Pellettieri Stone Carvers Academy because stone carving is an art that can benefit the carver as well as everyone who views the finished product. When we were looking for a mantel and surround for our fireplace, we commissioned Chris because we wanted something made by hand, embodying the artist’s creativity and skill, made using the same techniques, handed down from generation to generation, that sculptors and stone carvers have been using for millennia. For us it was a tangible link to a tradition of craftsmanship and creativity that has produced profoundly beautiful art that still delights and inspires people hundreds of years later. We also valued the craft intrinsically, for the manual, patient labor by which the carver is able, chip by chip, to coax a figure, an animal, a plant or object from a block of stone.

When Chris started the Academy several years later, we shared his goal of passing on his craft to others just as master stone carvers from Europe had passed it to Chris and other young men and women in New York. We believe that other artists can benefit from learning how to carve stone, creating more beautiful and interesting work. We believe that learning the craft of stone carving can also benefit others who may otherwise struggle to find meaningful and rewarding work in our technology-obsessed society. And if they go on to create beautiful, expressive carvings to grace our public spaces, then all the rest of us benefit too.

Matt and Beth Ricciardi