[artinfo] Art collabration with the Bank of England - central banking through conceptual art

[Martin John Callanan (news)]

With 5 days to go for the public to nominate a 
visual artist to feature on the next £20 bank 
note, the Bank is pleased to deepen its 
collaboration with visual arts through the 
arrival of artist Martin John Callanan, who will 
be working at the Bank over the next twelve 
months on a series of conceptual art projects. 
 Mr Callanan's work - which will be generously 
funded by the Leverhulme Trust and University 
College London - will reflect aspects of central 
banking, economics, finance and data.

Mr. Callanan - a Teaching Fellow at UCL's Slade 
School of Fine Art and current holder of the 
Philip Leverhulme Prize in Visual and Performing 
Art - researches and creates artwork to better 
understand how societies and individuals interact 
with technological, political, economic, 
environmental and other systems. His work, 
exhibited and published internationally, 
expresses complex ideas relating to these systems 
in tangible, accessible ways.

Working with the Bank of England will provide Mr. 
Callanan a unique opportunity to expand his 
research into financial services and economics, 
and to collaborate with economists, 
mathematicians and computer scientists at the 
Bank and beyond.

Through the exhibition of these finished 
artworks, this collaboration will also provide 
the Bank with a unique opportunity - to raise 
awareness and broaden public understanding of our 
mission to promote the good of the people of the 
United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and 
financial stability.

The Bank renewed its mission as part of the 
launch of its Strategic Plan in March 2014. Core 
priorities as part of this Plan included: opening 
up the Bank's research and analytical work to 
external contributions - and its data sets to the 
public - in order to benefit from external points 
of view; partnering with outside academic 
researchers to develop advanced data and research 
capabilities; encouraging diversity in all forms, 
including promoting and encouraging diversity of 
thinking and experience; and building public 
understanding of the Bank's responsibilities for 
maintaining monetary and financial stability.

The Bank's collaboration with Mr. Callanan will 
help to further each of these priorities, and 
builds on other successful Strategic Plan 
initiatives to date - including the launch of a 
One Bank Research Agenda, a data visualisation 
competition and our new Bank Underground staff 
blog.

It is also timely, given the next £20 banknote 
will celebrate Britain's achievements in the 
visual arts. Since 19 May 2015, the public have 
been invited to nominate historic visual artists 
they would like to see on the £20 note, to be 
released by 2020. Thousands of nominations have 
been received so far - underlining the extent of 
British achievement in the visual arts and 
reinforcing why this field deserves to be 
recognised on the next £20 note. The public has 
until 19 July 2015 to make their nominations on 
the Bank's website.

Welcoming Mr. Callanan's presence at the Bank, Governor Mark Carney said:

"Today's announcement brings together three 
recent themes of the Bank's work.  The financial 
crisis has taught us that we must look beyond the 
conventional, and approach policy issues with 
creativity, audacity, and diverse thinking. 
Harnessing the power of Big Data will allow for 
new patterns, new trends, and ultimately, new 
answers to age-old questions. And as we move 
towards celebrating the visual arts on our new 
£20 bank note, we also reflect on how the visual 
arts can help us deliver on our mission to 
promote the good of the people of the United 
Kingdom. On behalf of the Bank, I warmly welcome 
Martin Callanan, I look forward to seeing the 
results of his work, and I thank the Leverhulme 
Trust and University College London for 
generously sponsoring his work."

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Made possible with 
the <http://greyisgood.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a7b90da308ca808d73e815470&id=b850a8ec78&e=6c05dff77a>Philip 
Leverhulme Prize, awarded 
by <http://greyisgood.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a7b90da308ca808d73e815470&id=fb7babbd5d&e=6c05dff77a>The 
Leverhulme Trust.