Angry artist protesters, Good Crude Britannia plan to picket the summer party at Tate Britain.
On my return from the BP Portrait Award yesterday a certain member of team Spoonfed enquired if all the paintings at said exhibition had been oil paintings. Tee hee. Today however it emerges that we're not the only ones with a penchant for a good pun. Artists, musicians and green campaigners going by the name Good Crude Britannia are about to step up protests against BP's sponsorship of Britain's major art galleries and museums. Enough is enough it seems. Angered by the Gulf oil catastrophe caused by artistically benevolent BP, the group plan to picket Tate Britain's summer party on Monday 28th June. The prestigious bash is a celebration of two decades of BP sponsorship and attendees are expected to include a whole host of artists and donors from across Europe.
Aside from the Tate, the oil giant is a major sponsor of the British Museum, the Royal Opera House, the National Portrait Gallery and the Science and Natural History Museums. The demonstration comes after artist group Greenwash Guerrillas handed out leaflets and protested at the National Portrait Gallery event yesterday. And last month, yet another group of artists, Liberate Tate released black balloons attached with dead fish into the turbine hall at Tate Modern. As Greenpeace campaign director Robin Oakley, commented: “Organisations like the National Portrait Gallery help shape public attitudes towards the big issues of the day and if the Gallery is serious about climate change then the sponsorship deal with BP has got to end."
BP it seems are getting stick all over the shop – apparently, in a separate development, musicians Lady Gaga, Korn and Backstreet Boys are all planning to boycott BP on their forthcoming tours. And if they're not ethical enough for Gaga, well...
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Image credit: Deepwater Horizon Response
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