Leading arts figures sign open letter to the Guardian.
The Tate has come under fire once again for its ongoing sponsorship relationship with BP. In an open letter to the Guardian, leading figures from across the UK arts scenes have urged Tate to “demonstrate its commitment to a sustainable future” by severing its ties with the controversial oil giant.
The likes of No Logo author Naomi Klein, corgi-eating performance artist Mark McGowan and musician/artist/polymath Billy Childish have all signed their names to the letter, which accuses of BP of continuing to “jeapordise ecosystems, communities and the climate by the reckless pursuit of 'frontier' oil”.
Appropriately, Charles Thomson, and a large continginent of the Stuckists – the perpetual thorn in the side of the UK's major arts institutions, and the Tate in partiuclar – have also thrown their weight behind the letter. Unsurprisngly there's a noticeable lack of Turner Prize winners anywhere in a list that otherwise includes writers, curators, artists, film-makers, activists and academics.
The letter, which argues that “corporate sponsorship does not exist in an ethical vacuum”, comes shortly after an anti-BP sleepover flashmob took place in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall at the weekend, and less than a year after art protesters Good Crude Britannia picketed Tate Britain's summer party back in June 2010.
We await the response to the National Portrait Gallery's annual BP Portrait Award, which opens to the public on 16th June, with baited breath.
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Image credit: Deepwater Horizon Response
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