The University of Wisconsin-Madison held its annual shark tank-style Arts Business Competition on March 12 at Grainger Hall.
The competition, now in its 16th year, brings students from the university to pitch their arts-centered businesses. The campus-wide competition was created to support and encourage new thinking and innovative ideas in the form of an art exhibition, event, series, commercial venture, or other artistic project.
Three students made it to the finals where they pitched for a chance to win $2,000, $1,000 or $500. “Storybook Music Project” from Kristen Diedrechs and Spencer Day took home the grand $2,000 prize. “Friday the Furbteenth” by Syndey Prather, Hilary Falk and Hailey McLaughlin won the $1,000 second prize and “Go Figure” by Eliana Wasserman received the $500 prize.
This year also marked a first for the Arts Business Competition: no artists of color were finalists.
The competition has long been a way for finalists to get some level of guaranteed funding between its three prizes. A strong focal point was to increase opportunities for artists — chiefly artists of color — to have access to funds that they for the most part would not have access to.
Former director of UW-Madison’s Division of Arts Chris Walker had made it his mission to increase access. In a discussion last year with Madison365, he reeled back plans to increase finalists and cash prizes for a stronger push to reach artists of color through community partnerships.
When asked about the lack of artists of color for the first time ever, the Division of Arts said, “We feel that identifying people by their appearance or by name only to categorize them into underrepresented groups isn’t an accurate metric for us to determine a person’s identity.”
Madison365 reached out to Walker for comment.
“We did put some strategies in place last year to encourage and support a wide range of students participating,” Walker said. “I was not intimately involved this year so I do not know if those initiatives were continued with more recent changes in staff.”
Other opportunities for artists of color in UW-Madison still exist through the Andrè De Shields Fund.
2025 Arts Business Competition finalists
This year saw the “Storybook Music Project” from Kristen Diedrechs and Spencer Day take home the grand $2,000 prize. The venture looks to commission and perform chamber music inspired by storybooks like “Peter and the Wolf.” Diedrichs hopes to revitalize youth interest in classical music through performances at non-traditional concert venues like libraries.
“There’s been this scare about, you know, a primarily aging audience kind of being an issue for many classical ensembles,” Diedrichs said. “By having more options, and hopefully having composers and stories that reflect a wider breadth of kids in our community, we hope to show that everybody has a place in this classical music.”
With the $2,000, “Storybook Music Project” intends to commission a composer for a performance in the summer.
The $1,000 prize went to “Friday the Furbteenth” by Syndey Prather, Hilary Falk and Hailey McLaughlin. The venture is an annual art exhibit that celebrates ’90s nostalgia through artistic renditions of the era toy Furby. It received cult underground acclaim in Madison with its previous events. Hundreds of people continuously show up, much to the surprise of its founders, and it has its eyes set on using funds to bolster efforts for a larger Pride Month celebration.
“Go Figure” by Eliana Wasserman received the $500 prize. The venture is a Brooklyn-based weekly figure-drawing program led by local artists. It aims to open the doors to residents of the area of all skill levels to increase access to the arts and build community. The prize will go towards expanding its efforts to reach more people.
