Platform - June 2010

Next Monday, the Tate will celebrate 20 years of BP sponsorship at an exclusive summer party, The Guardian reports today. BP executives will enjoy cocktails with curators and artists at the Tate Britain, even as crude oil continues to wreak havoc on the Gulf of Mexico.

Today, Platform launches ‘licence to spill’, a new publication that explains why we think cultural sponsorship by oil companies like BP and Shell is unacceptable.

Faced with the devastating impacts of oil extraction on rights, the environment and climate change, the Tate and other major cultural players are turning a blind eye.

TAKE ACTION: This summer, the Tate has the chance to re-consider their deal with BP – details of which have been kept a secret. Public scrutiny and pressure will be a decisive factor in their decisions. You can email your opposition to BP's sponsorship of the Tate to:

Nicholas Serota (Head of Tate) nicholas.serota@tate.org.uk
Penelope Curtis (Head of Tate Britain) penelope.curtis@tate.org.uk
Judith Nesbitt (Chief Curator at Tate Britain) judith.nesbitt@tate.org.uk
Rebecca Williams (Head of Department - Tate) rebecca.williams@tate.org.uk
Please copy in info@platformlondon.org on any correspondence.

Videos: Liberate Tate! Artists are taking creative action to raise the pressure and demand that institutions like Tate stop taking oil money. Watch the video, and find out more by contacting Liberate Tate - email: liberatetate@gmail.com. Also, Rising Tide mobilised actions at the National Portrait Gallery this week. Watch the action here.

"Art exists to change the status quo. Sometimes you have to take a moral standpoint, to provide that space for questions to be raised, even though others argue that you shouldn’t" Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate in The Guardian Feb 2010

We found out how many national art institutions in London accept oil money. Download 'licence to spill' (pdf) to find out who they are.