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If you sup with the devil... you may not always come up smelling of roses!

It is rather silly for sponsored companies to react now - it suggests that they did not know what they were doing when the accepted the sponsorship. Rather like Formula 1 and cigarette sponsorship!

BP is unlikely to continue sponsorship in the short term anyway - dividends will come first.

Whale meat burgers anyone!!!!

Depends on if they are sponsoring the oil paintings....

...well if you won't go for the obvious bad joke..... ^^

We need BP - we don't need these artists . Britain would be better off without them.

The telling number for me is 170. Is this all they could find to sign their protest letter? I notice that not many of the names mentioned are known as ''creative artists'', the kind who might aspire to have their work exhibited inside these galleries, so I assume they are speaking as celebrity-visitors. This makes the number even more lamentable.

And why now? Why not at any time over the past 20 years of BP sponsorship? I think we all know why now and it all seems be born of mindless, knee-jerk, bandwagon outrage at a tragic error of judgement because the world wants cheap oil, including most of those 170. And how many of these boycotted BP products before this event? Not nearly as many as 170, I bet.

As long as I drive a car, ride in a train, or fly by plane, I can't really complain about oil sponsorship of the arts. I'm grateful for our galleries; who else is prepared to sponsor them?

"And why now? Why not at any time over the past 20 years of BP sponsorship? I think we all know why now and it all seems be born of mindless, knee-jerk, bandwagon outrage"

A little research would soon show that this claim is false. Platform have been campaigning about this and related issues for decades though with little coverage from the mainstream media, including the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳. The US oil leak means that the mass media has taken more interest than they usually do, the campaigners can hardly be blamed for making use of it in their campaign.

The financing of these companies has also been campaigned on for decades, with a little more mass media interest. The campaign has been boosted by the US oil leak, but the campaign was running long before that oil leak. Climate Camp were discussing campaigning about the Oil Bank of Scotland long before the US oil spill and they will bring their unique brand of campaigning to the Scots soon

And I see that the London Olympics have got into bed with BP so I imagine that there will be a lot of campaigning about that.

The contempt with which the olympic torch was treated in London, on its way to the repressive regime in China, and the protests in China provide a foretaste of what will happen in London unless big business and its vassal government start to behave responsibly.

I've attempted to answer your question on my CultureGrrl blog today:

I have been following this story with interest since it broke but I understand that this art protest campaign has been going on for some years by various groups of artists that make their living from art, such as Art Not Oil, Platform and more recently Liberate Tate who were responsible for the action at Tate Modern 10th birthday celebrations and were also involved in yesterdays joint action with the group mentioned, the good crude britannia. Solidarity colombia are also linked to a human rights campaign directed at BP. Wow it would be easy to get confused with all those names and any wonder that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ and others have got it all mixed up.

One of the things that stand out for me in the venomous comments on this and other pages directed at the artists that signed the letter is that many people are missing the point. In Britain we are in the privileged position of being able to protest when we feel outraged or wish to open a debate that is closed without being in fear of our lives from armed police or the military, such as we have seen happen recently in Thai Land. And I don't think Tate would disagree as it often shows more than a little interest in artists that are also activists.

The oil business is a very difficult and dirty business and this is exactly why it works so hard to give sponsorship to British cultural institutions such as Tate. Surely we are not blind enough to miss this? It is a manipulation of the arts and it allows the company to continue to do business in a highly volatile political climate. And if dangerous climate change is not a good enough reason for you to disapprove of BP as a viable sponsor then surely the allegations of human rights abuses around the world or the recent oil spill is.

Re the "we need BP' comment, I would recommend Professor Goodstein's Book 'Out of Gas: The end of the Age of Oil' and maybe you would change that comment to "We need artists but we don't need BP"

As we enter this so called new age of philanthropy, this sort of thing is going to happen again and again. What are the arts to do? take the cash and survive or alienate their core audiences and die?

I'm told to do a ''little research'' to get my facts right. A fair point, I think. You shouldn't take what you read here, or anywhere, on trust.

I read a copy of the open letter to The Guardian signed by 170+ signatories referred to in the article above and to which my criticism was aimed.

I might be mistaken but I see no indication that this letter came from the chronic protest group ''Platform''. In fact, I could only find a lone signatory, Jane Powell, who admits membership of this group and she doesn't sign herself as being a creative artist.

Should I do more research?

Do we expect art institutions to shut up and take the money no matter where it comes from? Are we that desperate? To my mind the only thing that will kill the art if indeed art can die, is exactly that: shutting up and selling out whilst knowing that what is making you rich and successful is causing environmental devastation, climate change and someone else where in the world great suffering. It can't be easy to come out publicly and burn ones bridges, I think we need to support our British artists.

How long do we think it will be before the financial markets turn their backs on oil? Tate won't hesitate to follow suit when that times comes. Why do you think oil companies are drilling in more and more hazardous places like deep water or going into the Tar sands of Canada? Because oil is getting harder harder to find, after this accident in the gulf of mexico drilling like this will be uninsurable.

And finally if you are not impressed by the 170 + signatories then please remember it was just 15 people meeting in a public house in London that started the anti slave trade movement. Brave people like that fought for everything we take for granted with their own lives.







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