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What we discovered at Tate Members’ AGM last week
Tate Trustees will be reviewing the BP sponsorship agreement in 2016. – said Tate director Nicholas Serota in response to members’ questioning of the BP relationship. This means we have approximately a year to persuade Tate (as well as three other institutions – British Museum, Royal Opera House, and National Portrait Gallery) to take the challenge of climate change…
10 Dec 2014 anna -
Tate, Big Oil, and the savage inequality of capital
Just over a week ago Tate Modern and its new landmark extension got a bit of a mauling from writer Will Self, who argued in the print version of The Guardian that it “symbolises the savage inequality of the capital”. It’s an interesting piece about art, privilege and the hyper-rich, and has got people arguing…
1 Dec 2014 jane -
Where do we go from here? Climate change, arts & Culture Shift
We’re very excited about Culture Shift – the new report by Emergence on how artists are responding to sustainability. (It’s also available in Welsh). Culture Shift includes a great idea for a “Gablik Test” for the arts, learning from the Bechdel Test. Here is an extract from the report. “If the scientists are right,…
24 Nov 2014 admin -
Bill McKibben slams Shell sponsorship at elite climate conference #CHclimate
350.org’s Bill McKibben just gave a keynote address at Chatham House’s annual conference on climate change. Bill didn’t know it when he agreed to talk at the conference, but its headline sponsor is Shell. Here is what Bill said to a room full of “senior officials from businesses, government, NGO’s and academic institutions”: Shell is…
4 Nov 2014 anna -
Shell’s climate marketing tricks
Have you seen all these new Shell ads? Billboards on high streets and tube stations celebrate Shell as a champion of climate action and “keeping-the-lights-on”. When she’s your age What’s the way to keep the lights on into 2050? Burn the rest of the world’s fossil fuels, of course. And look, she’s even got a…
3 Nov 2014 anna -
Exciting week for ending the licence to spill
Why do BP and Shell need cultural institutions (Tate, British Museum, National Portrait Gallery), consumer brands (Lego, Waitrose) and universities? The simple answer is so that the rest of us think we need them. As the Tate’s lawyer explained BP’s sponsorship, if they didn’t think they were getting something out of it, they wouldn’t do…
10 Oct 2014 anna -
Tate and oil: does the art world need to come clean about sponsorship?
Susanna Rustin, The Guardian
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When Art Meets Activism. As Tate faces the Information Tribunal over BP sponsorship, is there a line between art and ethics?
Interview with Kevin Smith (Platform) and Hannah Davey (Liberate Tate)
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Le sponsoring culturel des géants du pétrole crée la polémique
Cultural sponsorship by oil company giants is creating debate Tristan de Bourbon, London; in Tribune de Genéve, page 11
