Pratiksha Shome
Environmentalists have hailed the British Museum’s decision to sever its 27-year collaboration with the fossil fuel firm BP as a win. After decades of philanthropic links with organisations like the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery, this represents BP’s abrupt exit from the British art scene.
There are no further contracts or agreements in effect between the museum and BP, the museum acknowledged in a statement that was first reported by the Guardian. The most recent five-year contract between the two parties came to an end in February, and in the months before that, numerous scholars and museum staff members urged the museum to take advantage of the chance to make a significant divestiture.
The British Museum stated that “certain terms” of the old arrangement will remain in effect because it has a verbal agreement to permit BP to exercise its “supporter benefits” through the end of the year in the latest disclosures, which were obtained by solicitors working for the environmentalist group Culture Unstained. Although none of the supporter benefits are related to programming or museum projects, the disclosure did not clarify what they comprise.
ARTnews has contacted BP for a response.
BP’s funding of the British Museum has long been a source of contention among activists, artists, and museum professionals. coordinating numerous demonstrations at the museum during the previous few years.
Numerous scholars and museum personnel criticised London’s British Museum in 2021 in an open letter for its refusal to end the contractual relationship with BP. “Refusing further sponsorship from BP would send a strong signal that fossil fuel corporations—like tobacco and arms companies—are no longer welcome in cultural life,” the letter stated. “By reducing BP’s social licence to operate,’ it would aid in the transition of our society away from fossil fuels,” the author writes.
After a 26-year association, the Tate museum network announced in 2016 that it will discontinue accepting financing from BP. In 2019, the National Galleries of Scotland stopped accepting BP sponsorship for a recurring portraiture exhibition. The Southbank Centre in London, which houses the Hayward Gallery, dissolved its partnership with Shell in 2020.
Source: ARTnews
