Baltimore ceramicist Sam Mack has won the prestigious 19th annual Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize awarded by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, taking home $30,000.

Mixed-media artist Amy Boone-McCreesh came in second place and won a studio residency at the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower, BOPA announced Thursday. Third place went to weaver Hellen Ascoli.

All finalists received a $2,500 M&T Bank Finalist Award to ready themselves for the Sondheim Finalists Exhibition, on view through Sept. 8 at the Walters Art Museum in Mount Vernon.

“The work of all this year’s finalists explores different personal identities using an impressive range of mediums and techniques,” BOPA CEO Rachel D. Graham told The Baltimore Sun in a written statement.

“The pieces all have a tactile quality and fill the exhibition space with color. The jurors had an incredibly difficult decision to make, but ultimately found Sam’s deft use of materials, along with the poetic and humorous juxtapositions in their work, to speak [to] the vulnerability of being trans in America. The jurors were also excited about how Sam’s work could grow from here.”

Mack, who has an MFA in studio art from the School of Art at the University of Arkansas, creates “site-responsive sculpture” using ceramic vessels, according to a BOPA news release. They have exhibited nationally and across the globe.

“I think it will take a few days for it to truly sink in,” Mack, who uses they/them pronouns, said in a written statement. “This is such an incredible gift of support that will help me buy my first kiln, among other studio support that will assist in the creation of future work.”

Presented by M&T Bank with support from the Maryland State Arts Council, this year’s prize for visual artists in the Baltimore region was decided by a panel of jurors including artist, scholar and poet Noel W. Anderson; curator and educator Connie H. Choi; and curator and historian Aaron Levi Garvey.

It’s named in honor of Janet Sondheim, a dancer and teacher, and Walter Sondheim Jr., who contributed to the desegregation of Baltimore schools and the redevelopment of the downtown area.