Two School of Education artists were recognized in the 2026 Arts Business Competition at UW–Madison: MFA candidate Fatemeh Fani received the first place award, and Maja Hastings, a 2025 Art Department alumna, finished second place.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison Arts Business Competition invites current students from across campus to submit proposals for an arts event, exhibition, performance series, or other artistic project.
Fani’s first-place project, “I wasn’t asked,” focuses on raising awareness about the realities of compulsory hijab. As Fani’s MFA solo thesis exhibition, the project is a multi-layered memorial installation that examines identity, memory, violence, and trauma. Fani is an Iranian researcher, activist, interdisciplinary artist, and MFA candidate in studio art at UW–Madison.
Hastings’s second-place project, “The Crafty Critters,” is a free after-school program for second graders at Aldo Leopold Elementary School. The program combines environmental stewardship and creative expression through weekly lessons on recycling and sustainability, art activities using repurposed materials, and litter collection around school grounds. At the end of the year, students will present their work in a community art exhibition.
Hastings is currently a graduate student in Art and Creative Enterprise Leadership with UW–Madison’s Bolz Center for Arts Administration. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in art: graphic design from the School of Education’s Art Department.
Read more about the Arts Business Competition.