[Photo taken by class staff of students listening to C. Ryan Patterson’s presentation on the process of commissioning public art.]
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Ryan Patterson
Class Speaker
Ryan Patterson
Class Speaker
By Sid Garg, Isaiah Yakov Zack, and Eva Zhang
Fall 2025
On September 17, we had the pleasure of welcoming C. Ryan Patterson to our classroom as a guest speaker. As an arts administrator, he shared valuable insights into the process of commissioning art throughout Maryland, providing us with a deeper understanding of the artistic landscape in our state. He detailed the proposal selection process and reviewed previous works to illustrate why a particular artist was chosen over the others. This allowed the students to witness the procedures in real time.
As an artist, he offered valuable insights on which artworks would best suit the IDEA Factory, helping the students expand their perspectives on art. He emphasized the importance of artists understanding culture and effectively conveying that through their work. Having background information about the company or location can significantly impact the selection of an artist proposal.
The whole class learned the behind-the-scenes aspect of this selection process. In order to actually get a project of this magnature to work properly, a grant is needed to support the project and that depends on the success of the application submitted by the artist to the class commissioning the work. The application will undergo review according to predetermined criteria and the discretion of the students, with a hierarchy of selections that get more harsh as it continues. If the applicant artist gets approved, they will be given a grant of money to fund their artwork.
Following the logistics, Patterson opened the floor up to questioning and asked about what some students would want to see published in the public art sphere. At one point, one of us offered the insight of making a work of art that was interactive and that engaged the student body to use it physically instead of just looking at it. One of the ideas mentioned was a work of art that was a game for students to play as they pass by. These ideas piqued Patterson’s interest and he felt as though public spaces could benefit from artwork like this as physical engagement with public work has been lacking around campus and other areas. We can use these insights and ideas to potentially influence via our request for proposal art proposals submitted in the future. Lastly, he highlighted the importance of specifying timelines, addressing questions such as how long the piece will take to complete and the duration it should remain before being replaced. As students commissioning a piece for the IDEA Factory, having a guest speaker who actively engages in this work offer us insights into topics we had never considered was extremely valuable.
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