Platform Newsletter December 2011

16 December 2011

Wishing you seasonal greetings and a good break over the new year. This is the last mail you’ll be getting from us in 2011. There’s been a final flurry of activity from us to update you on, including some developments on the BP-Tate campaign, a new report on investor uncertainty on the tar sands, a preview clip of the Tate a tate audio tour and Platform looking to hire an Energy Policy Campaigner. More details below.

Tate to make BP decision “quite soon”

In the space of a few short weeks, we released ‘Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil[1]‘, and presented to Tate-head Nick Serota at the Tate members AGM more than 8,000 signatures on an open letter a calling on Tate to drop BP sponsorship. Serota announced that the decsion[2] on renewing the sponsorship was going to be made by Tate trustees “quite soon” and the story got picked up in the Guardian[3].

Thank you to everyone who helped to make this happen by signing the letter. This is a critical time to keep pressure up by keeping the debate visible and alive, and we’re hoping that people can help fuel that by sharing our new arts publication, ‘Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil’[4] through mailing lists, twitter, blogs, reviews and facebook.

You can browse ‘Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil’ online here[5], and you can also buy hard copies (complete with unique Deepwater Horizon oily motif) from the Live Art Development Agency[6] online bookshop Unbound[7].

Thank you to everyone who came down for the packed-out launch event. We were very touched by the level of support. You can read an account of the launch event from oil-spill artist Ruppe Koselleck here[8], see some photos of it here[9] and you can read Mel Evans on the Greenpeace UK blog about going to the Tate Members AGM here[10].

The Culture Beyond Oil launch at the Free Word Centre
Getting to Market – Emerging Investor Risks in the Tar Sands

This week we released a new report in conjunction with Greenpeace UK[11] and Oil Change International[12] . The tar sands industry plans to increase production by 138% from todays level in the next fifteen years. But the report shows that this growth in the extraction from Alberta is being put at risk by the inability of producers to get the resources, dug or steamed from beneath the forests, out to the world markets. With the Canadian province entirely land locked, and the market for oil products in the US Mid-West becoming saturated, projects in Alberta will increasingly depend on being able to get tar sands derived crudes out to the oceans of the world.

Read the report, and James Marriott’s blog about it here[13].

Platform is hiring – Energy Policy Campaigner

Do you want to shift UK policy away from supporting destructive oil and gas projects? Platform’s Carbon Web project aims to undermine the links between UK oil companies and those who support them, such as government departments, investors and cultural institutions. As Energy Policy Campaigner, you will play a central role in delivering the Carbon Web programme. You will be responsible for driving multiple campaigns that demand corporate and government accountability. Working with a dynamic team of six campaigners, your task will be to challenge the oil companies who are shaping UK policy and to campaign for greater democratic control over government decision-making.

You can download the full job description here[14] and the deadline for applicants is Monday 23rd of January.

Tate a Tate Audio Tour snippet online now

We are excited to be launching the Tate a Tate audio tour in Winter 2012. There’s a holding page online now where you can here a preview snippet here[15].