BP to give £10m to four UK arts institutions
As protests against the energy company’s arts sponsorship grow, museums and the minister of culture support BP's latest funding
By Martin Bailey. Web only
Published online: 19 December 2011
BP has announced a £10m sponsorship deal with four major London arts institutions—the British Museum, Tate Britain, the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Opera House. The five-year arrangement will run until 2017, continuing support, which in most cases dates back for two decades.
At the British Museum, sponsorship will be mainly for exhibitions, such “Vikings” in 2014. The National Portrait Gallery will continue to receive backing for its BP Portrait Award. At Tate Britain, the money will be mainly for displays, including a 2013 rehang after the building’s renovation is completed.
Separately, BP is a major corporate sponsor of the Cultural Olympiad’s London 2012 Festival.
BP’s support for the arts has been attacked by environmentalists, primarily because of the 2010 oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico. In November 2011, a Tate trustee Patrick Brill (who works as an artist as Bob and Roberta Smith), criticised the company, saying that “BP is a disgrace”. He also revealed that a fellow trustee, the London-based German artist Wolfgang Tillmans, had raised the issue on the Tate board.
