Artists to protest at Tate’s BP party today
3:02 pm - June 28th 2010
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The Tate is throwing a gala event in order to celebrate 20 years of BP sponsorship later today, according to a leaked invitation seen by the campaign group Platform.
A group of artists calling themselves The Good Crude Britannia, who want Tate to cut its ties with BP, will picket tonight’s party.
They come together to speak out against oil industry sponsorship of the arts in “Licence to Spill“, a new briefing being launched by Platform last week.
Tate’s five-year sponsorship deal with BP is up for renewal in spring 2011, and sources within Tate suggest the controversial issue of BP’s sponsorship will be on the agenda for the first time at the upcoming trustees’ meeting in July.
There has been growing activism in the UK against BP’s sponsorship of arts in the UK.
Last month, Liberate Tate disrupted Tate Modern’s 10th anniversary celebrations.
This week, Rising Tide and Art Not Oil targeted the BP Portrait Award ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery and Greenpeace mounted an alternative exhibition to coincide with the private view.
The magazine Don’t Panic also filmed their own protest against a BP event last week (video below)
Jane Trowell of Platform said:
BP is trying to repair its tarnished reputation and buy our approval by associating itself with culturally important institutions like Tate. The financial support provided by BP creates a perception of it being a cuddly corporate entity, and aims to distract us from the devastating environmental and social impacts of its global operations.
Public outrage over the Deepwater Horizon spill is creating a moment for change. We hope that, as happened with the tobacco industry, it will soon come to be seen as socially unacceptable for cultural institutions to accept funding from Big Oil
A letter has been published in the Guardian today by artists protesting against the BP sponsorship.
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Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments
BP is trying to repair its tarnished reputation and buy our approval by associating itself with culturally important institutions like Tate.
That was quite a bit of forward thinking when the sponsorship started 20 years ago.
Given the obesity crisis, maybe Tate should change its name so as to dissociate itself from one of the titans of Big Sugar?
Is this about:
1. trying to ensure that modern art isn’t tarnished by association with BP (despite art being as much part of the carbon economy as everything else)
2. trying to do some damage to BP, or to make any sort of difference with respect to oil, the environment, etc.
it’s easier to see 1. being achieved than 2.
Presumably BP thinks there’s some sort of value to sponsoring art, so preventing that should hurt BP somehow, but damned if I can see what it achieves. Does it make any difference to demand for its products or the legislation under which it operates?
@3 – There is great value if you dont like BP, if tate gets rid of its sponser im turning the heating off and walking everywhere.
Tokenist bollocks. BP are no worse than any other Big Global Company; either you hate corporate sponsorship of the arts in general (in which case fair play), or this is no worse than sponsorship by Unilever, PwC, Diageo, or whoever.
Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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Liberal Conspiracy
Artists to protest at Tate's BP party today http://bit.ly/9QRetp
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sunny hundal
A group of artists will protest a Tate party tonight, as anti-BP activism gathers force here http://bit.ly/9QRetp
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Maeve McKeown
RT @sunny_hundal: A group of artists will protest a Tate party tonight, as anti-BP activism gathers force here http://bit.ly/9QRetp
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alix L.
RT @libcon: Artists to protest at Tate's BP party today http://bit.ly/9QRetp
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