BP announced that its sponsorship of Tate will come to an end at the beginning of 2017, after 26 years. The release of a report in 2015 revealed that from 1990 to 2006, BP handed over £3.8m, or on average £224,000 a year to the British institution. Increasing ethical concerns have been raised by general public and Tate’s members about maintaining a partnership with an oil company in times of heightened climate change awareness. The art collective Liberate Tate! was created in 2010 specifically to put an end to the controversial deal, through campaigns, protests and performance interventions at the institution. ‘It’s time for other institutions sponsored by BP, Shell and other oil companies – like National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Opera House and British Museum – to follow Tate’s lead and end their deals’ said a protester from the collective.
11 March 2016.
