May 24, 2016

Sunken Cities are not a thing of the past

tags:	#art, #BP, #British Museum, #not oil, #sponsorship, #Sunken Cities
by:	Deniz Zehra Tavli

British Museum has a blockbuster exhibition this summer. Sunken Cities sponsored by BP – a company that profits from climate change and is responsible for environmental disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

For the museum, it’s the launch of their biggest event of the year. But in the eyes of BP, whose logo appears all over the show, it’s an exquisite opportunity to clean up its image and distract from the polluting realities of its business. BP’s cash contributes less than 1% of the British Museum’s annual income, but the benefits it can glean from cosying up to the UK’s most popular cultural attraction can be priceless.

Sponsorship of art and cultural institutions is being used by oil companies like BP for the sole purpose of furthering their business interests. A series of recent Freedom of Information requests reported by the grassroots coalition Art, Not Oil show how BP strategically uses these institutions to lobby government officials and get direct access to decision makers.

The future of the sponsorship deal between the British Museum and BP is being decided now. Sign the petition to the British Museum asking them to drop BP as a sponsor and contribute to the independance of art!