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For Lucy Fairley, founder of Helix Arts and Crossings
Blog post -
Sep 30, 2016
My friend and Platform ally Lucy Fairley has died, aged 70. We’ve known her and her work for nearly 25 years and worked especially closely with her in the late 1990s. She founded Artists Agency in Sunderland in 1983, and in 1987 appointed Esther Salamon to join her initially as Placement Officer, then as in...
Strip away the carapace – the Ice Age, BP, and the British Museum
Blog post -
Sep 15, 2016
It pushes me quickly to tears. I’m kneeling on the cold stone floor of the Great Court, legs tucked beneath me, one foot crossed under the other. I’m listening to a rendition of A Requiem to Sinking Cities – an agit-performance in the heart of the British Museum. Silent figures hold up two banners, ‘#DropBP’...
Open letter: BP can’t buy our silence
Blog post -
Aug 2, 2016
Today’s Times has published an open letter from Mark Rylance, Naomi Klein, Nnimmo Bassey, Matthew Herbert, and 215 artists, actors, arts managers, musicians, frontline activists, campaigners, and scientists, arguing: We cannot afford another five years of BP-branded culture. Last Thursday BP announced the renewal of its flagship sponsorship programme. Its partners, this time: British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Royal...
Statement: protest will escalate with BP’s newly announced sponsorship deals
Press release -
Jul 28, 2016
Contact: Anna Galkina / 07942044472 / [email protected] Today BP announced new headline sponsorship agreements with the British Museum, Royal Opera House, National Portrait Gallery and Royal Shakespeare Company, providing the institutions with an average of only £375,000 a year each. This is less than the price of the average 2 bedroom flat in London, and 25% less...
We’re taking Tate to the Information Tribunal over #BPsecrets
Blog post -
May 5, 2016
Next Wednesday, we’re taking Tate to the Information Tribunal for refusing to reveal details of BP sponsorship. The disputed information is the amounts BP gave after 2006 and until 2012. This is despite a previous court ruling, and despite the fact that the sponsorship deal is ending in 2017. Thanks to a heap of internal...
Media advisory: Tate to defend its BP secrecy in court, 11 May (hearing details)
Press release -
May 3, 2016
Media advisory: Tate to defend its BP secrecy in court, 11 May (hearing details) * Art museum refusing to make public sponsorship details despite ending the deal with BP.[1] * Hearing scheduled for 11 May 2016. * British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and Royal Opera House believed to be reconsidering their sponsorship deals with BP by...
Drawing Red Lines – from Paris to Ffos-y-fran
Blog post -
Apr 29, 2016
I watched the twitter feed and followed the news early last December filled with a mixture of excitement at what unfolded in Paris and mild envy of companions who were immersed in the ebb and flow of events around COP 21, the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC. As the reports of the...
Edinburgh Festival drops BP. And 1 in 2 Londoners think British Museum should do the same
Blog post -
Apr 6, 2016
The news is just in: the Edinburgh International Festival is not renewing its BP sponsorship – as confirmed by the festival on Twitter. Last year, Festival star Simon McBurney criticised the BP relationship, alongside Emma Thompson, Mark Rylance, and Caryl Churchill. Several theatres including London’s Royal Court and Arcola have joined the Fossil Funds Free...
In Memory of Doreen Massey
Blog post -
Mar 24, 2016
She was taken away in mid conversation. The last time I saw Doreen, we met at the usual place, Small & Beautiful in Kilburn at 6.30. Doreen liked to eat early and the restaurant was near her flat. We set off on a rolling, rollicking exchange during which we voyaged over Brexit, birdwatching, Corbyn, capitalism,...
