Heathrow is co-funding an impressive new art work with the City of London Corporation in the new Paddington Crossrail station.

A Cloud Index by international artist Spencer Finch (pictured) will see different types of clouds printed onto the glazed canopy above the station ticket hall. They will create a picture of the sky which will appear to change according to the light, the direction of the sun and the time of day.

The artwork was selected by an advisory Round Table in collaboration with Lisson Gallery and station architects Weston Williamson. It will be part of Crossrail’s Culture Line, an exhibition of large-scale art across central London Crossrail stations. It has been created in collaboration with London’s leading art galleries and Futurecity, a cultural and placemaking agency.

Artist Spencer Finch said: “I want to create a visual experience for travellers that changes each time they pass through the station. This artwork will exist both as an artificial cloudscape and as a homage to the British obsession with categorizing and systematizing the most fugitive of natural phenomena. Since Luke Howard first created a nomenclature for clouds in 1803, the efforts to comprehend and quantify clouds have been both beautiful and quixotic, and clouds always seem to stay one step ahead of human understanding.”

Heathrow’s CEO John Holland-Kaye said: “We are incredibly proud to be part of the Culture Line and to support Crossrail’s work connecting Heathrow with the City, Canary Wharf and east London. Crossrail will transform journey times across London, take nearly 2 million cars off the road by the time it fully opens in 2019, and ultimately help us to ensure more than 50% of our passengers use public transport at an expanded Heathrow by 2030.”

Terry Morgan, Crossrail Chairman said: “Spencer Finch’s art is beautiful, ambitious and intelligent. It will leave a legacy for future generations, helping to maintain London’s reputation as a global capital for arts and culture. I would like to thank Heathrow for joining the City of London Corporation and contributing towards the Culture Line, which has good momentum as we get closer to Crossrail opening in 2018.”

Mark Boleat, Policy Chairman at the City of London Corporation said: “Crossrail is the most important infrastructure development for London in recent years, helping us remain a globally competitive and world-leading city. However, the project also offers the chance to leave a fantastic cultural footprint for future generations to enjoy which is why we are delighted to half-fund the Crossrail Art Foundation and the Culture Line.”

The Culture Line falls outside Crossrail’s £14.8 billion core funding. The Crossrail Art Foundation is raising funds for the individual artworks from corporate funders. The City of London Corporation has also agreed to support the Crossrail Art Foundation by match funding the contributions received from the corporate funders. Commissions for artworks will focus initially on the new Crossrail stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Whitechapel and Canary Wharf.

An estimated 25 million people a year are expected to use the Crossrail station at Paddington when the new railway opens in 2018. Improvements at Paddington include the Paddington Integrated Project (PIP), a close collaboration between Transport for London, Network Rail and Crossrail to create an integrated station with improved passenger experience and easy interchanges. As part of this, a new Hammersmith & City line station has been built to ease over-crowding, along with a new pedestrian entrance to the canal towpath and a new taxi facility to the east of the existing station.

Crossrail will carry over 200 million passengers per year, adding 10% to central London’s rail capacity. It will bring an additional 1.5 million people within 45 minutes of London’s key employment, leisure and business districts and encourage regeneration all the way across the capital.

Passengers from business district Canary Wharf will be able to travel to Heathrow in under 40 minutes without changing trains.

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For further information contact the Crossrail Press Office on 020 3229 9552 or email pressoffice@crossrail.co.uk

Spencer Finch (b. 1962 in New Haven, Connecticut, USA) has exhibited internationally at major institutions. Solo exhibitions include Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2011); Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst, MA (2011); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2010); Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France (2010); Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2009); Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee (2008); MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (2007). Group shows include: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA (2011); Folkestone Triennial, Folkestone (2011); Hayward Gallery, London (2010); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010); 53rd Venice Biennale, Venice (2009); The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2004). Selected public projects include High Line public commission (2009) and Park Avenue Armory, New York (2008).

Spencer Finch is represented in the UK by Lisson Gallery. For more information on Spencer click here or contact Lisson Gallery Director Joanna Thornberry on joanna@lissongallery.com

The Culture Line has engaged world renowned London art galleries to create a line-wide exhibition across Crossrail’s new central London stations. The result will be a unique art commission of international importance embedded into the design and architecture of each station.

Artworks will be integrated into new Crossrail stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel and Canary Wharf. It is hoped they will deliver pleasure and inspiration to Londoners for generations to come and become a global destination for art-lovers. Turner Prize winning artists Douglas Gordon and Richard Wright were recently selected to develop artworks at Tottenham Court Road Crossrail station, alongside artist Michal Rovner’s digital artwork proposal for Canary Wharf.

The Culture Line falls outside Crossrail’s £14.8 billion core funding. The Crossrail Art Foundation is raising funds for the individual artworks from corporate funders. The City of London Corporation has also agreed to support the Crossrail Art Foundation, including by match funding the contributions received from the corporate funders for artworks across the central London Crossrail stations. Funders will have a once in a generation opportunity to associate their brand with an iconic piece of London infrastructure and some of the world’s most famed galleries and artists.

The Crossrail Art Foundation will select artworks that will form The Culture Line, with the support of advisory Round Table panels of art-world representativesfrom national and local arts organisations, the commercial galleries working with Crossrail, station architects and the station funders. The advisory Paddington Round Table members volunteered their time and included: Kate Bush, previously Head of Art Galleries at Barbican; Colin Tweedy previously Chief Executive at Art & Business, Susie Allen MA RCA, Founding Director of Artwise; Ann Elliott, an independent curator and Fellow of the Royal Society of Art; including Lisson Gallery, Crossrail and Transport for London representatives.

About Crossrail:

The total funding available to deliver Crossrail is £14.8bn. The Crossrail route will pass through 40 stations and run more than 100km from Reading and Heathrow in the west, through new twin-bore 21 km (13 miles) tunnels below central London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

Crossrail is being delivered by Crossrail Limited (CRL). CRL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London. Crossrail is jointly sponsored by the Department for Transport and Transport for London.

www.crossrail.co.uk

About City of London:

The City of London Corporation provides local government and policing services for the financial and commercial heart of Britain, the 'Square Mile'. In addition, the City Corporation has three roles: 

Supporting London’s communities by working in partnership with neighbouring boroughs on economic regeneration, education and skills projects. In addition, the City of London Corporation’s charity City Bridge Trust makes grants of more than £15 million annually to charitable projects across London and supports education with three independent schools, three City Academies, a primary school and the world-renowned Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Helping look after key London’s heritage and green spaces including Tower Bridge, Museum of London, Barbican Arts Centre, City gardens, Hampstead Heath, Epping Forest, Burnham Beeches, and important ‘commons’ in south London.

Supporting and promoting the ‘City’ as a world-leading financial and business hub, with outward and inward business delegations, high-profile civic events and research-driven policies all reflecting a long-term approach.

It was agreed at the 2nd October 2007 Court of Common Council meeting that approval be given to a contribution by the City of London Corporation to the cost of Crossrail in the sum of £250 million.

See www.cityoflondon.gov.uk for more details.