Tate Museum Under Fire for Financial Ties to BP

(June 28) -- A wide range of British artists, angered by the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, have lashed out at London's Tate Britain art museum for accepting financial support from BP, noting that the museum's annual summer party is also celebrating the oil company's 20 years of sponsorship.

A letter published in The Guardian today and signed by more than 170 artists says that the BP logo "represents a stain on Tate's international reputation," and that oil companies are using their support to cover up the "environmentally destructive nature of their activities."

"Little more than a decade ago," the letter adds, "tobacco companies were seen as respectable partners for public institutions to gain support from -- that is no longer the case. It is our hope that oil and gas will soon be seen in the same light."

Activists have vowed to picket the Tate's party tonight, following a week of protests by artists at a BP-sponsored event last week at London's National Portrait Gallery. The Tate was also the target last month of an artists' group that released black balloons attached to dead fish inside the gallery's main hall in protest of the gulf spill. The gallery, whose chief trustee, Lord Browne of Madingley, is a former head of BP, had to shoot the balloons down with air rifles.

BP is a leading financial backer of major British cultural institutions, which last week thanked the company for its support.

"We are grateful to BP for their long-term commitment," said a joint statement by the Tate, the Royal Opera House, the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, the BBC reported. "The income generated though corporate partnerships is vital to the mixed economy of successful arts organizations and enables each of us to deliver a rich and vibrant cultural programme."

BP has refused to say how much money it contributes to the institutions, according to The Guardian, which noted the oil company is likely to be "one of the most generous." BP has already been forced to pay out more than $2.6 billion in its efforts to stop the leak and compensate people for damage and business losses.

Today's letter, which was signed by artists that included musicians, a playwright, a cartoonist and a comedian, said, "The public is rapidly coming to recognize that the sponsorship programmes of BP and Shell are means by which attention can be distracted from their impacts on human rights, the environment and the global climate."

One of the signatories, Matthew Herbert, an electronic musician who was a major figure at Britain's Glastonbury Festival this weekend, said last week, "It is absurd that the Tate should be sponsored by a company that is as irresponsible and polluting as BP."

Jane Trowell, a member of the environmental group called Platform, said last week, "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 operation."