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2025 Big Idea Award Winners Announced

May 2, 2025

A team of Interarts students with a mission to empower queer and female artists are the recipients of the 2025 Big Idea Award.

Together, Maddie Vassalo (BFA ​’25) and Miles Hionis (BFA ​’26) make up Naming all the Flowers I Could (NAF), a multidisciplinary arts organization that produces time-based work in all mediums — from theater, to film, to games. Their recent projects include If The World Ends Tomorrow It’s All Your Fault, a 90-minute devised play; Iphis and Ianthe, a 33-minute short film; and When We Break, We Breathe, an interactive full-motion video game.

Their big idea? To cultivate a community of like-minded artists and collaborators, forging new avenues for queer and female artists to tell their authentic stories and create work outside of traditional theater and film industry pathways. To that end, they plan to organize a new festival for queer and female theater makers, filmmakers, and game designers in Southeast Michigan. NAF will provide small grants to selected artists to produce their proposed works, and produce a showcase on the University of Michigan campus at the end of the academic year, accompanied by film, game, and theater-making workshops. 

In this video, the duo describes their collaborative work and plans for a multimedia festival in the Ann Arbor/​Detroit area.

The Stamps School of Art & Design, with generous support from the Stamps Family, friends, and other supporters in the community, proudly offers the Big Idea Award in memory of alumna Penny W. Stamps (1944−2018).

The Big Idea Award aims to motivate students to develop ambitious aspirations that reflect the values of a Stamps education; accelerate progress toward achieving those aspirations; and encourage students to rise to the challenge put forth by Penny W. Stamps. The award provides one Stamps senior or eligible team $25,000 to help launch a major, ambitious project after graduation. Past Big Idea Award recipients include: