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Email Tate

By: Art Not Oil
Date: Sat, 16/04/2011 - 1:00am

EMAIL tate

Tell Tate to stop taking BP's dirty money!If you’re angry that a much-loved institution like Tate is helping a destructive company like BP greenwash its image, take 2 minutes to email Tate boss Nicholas Serota and ask him to stop taking BP’s dirty money.Just cut and paste the email below (or even better, personalise it with your own views and words) and email it to the Director of Tate, nicholas.serota@tate.org.uk. Please cc info@risingtide.org.uk – and do forward us any replies you get as it will be a huge help to the campaign!Dear Mr Serota,

I am writing to add my voice to calls from across the UK for respected institutions such as yours to take a stand against the unethical practices of BP, by ending your sponsorship agreements with the company.

This week marks the one year anniversary of BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which caused the deaths of 11 workers, triggered America’s largest ever environmental disaster and sparked controversy about the role of one of the UK’s most iconic companies.

Since April 2010, BP has been on a PR offensive to reclaim its image - not least through its relationship with galleries such as Tate - and to reassure us all that it has learned its lesson and moved on.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Last December, BP made the hugely controversial decision to start extracting high-polluting oil from the Canadian tar sands. It is pressing ahead with drilling in the fragile Arctic, and deep-sea drilling in Russia. And, like every other year, BP is destroying the lives and livelihoods of frontline communities around the world.

By forging and maintaining links with a corporation such as BP, Tate is dirtying its own name with its implicit consent to such actions. Every pound of dirty oil money accepted by Tate helps legitimise a long legacy of environmental destruction and human rights abuses. You are helping BP to buy public acceptance at a time when we need to have our eyes wide open to climate change and other problems the company is causing.

Out of respect for your excellent work in offering access to the arts, and bearing in mind your support for critical and challenging approaches, I am asking you keep dirty oil out of our cultural heritage.

Yours sincerely,Now, go to: The Great BP-Sponsored Sleep-In Events Press
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Press

By: Art Not Oil
Date: Wed, 13/04/2011 - 1:00am

PRESS

Press contacts: 07858 177 178 or 07708 794 665
info@risingtide.org.ukRecent press releases15 April 2011Tate Modern targeted by anti-BP flashmob protestProtesters angry at BP’s failures over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will descend on Tate Modern this Sunday in protest at the gallery’s links with the beleaguered oil giant.

Next Wednesday will see the anniversary of the Gulf spill, and direct action groups London Rising Tide and Art Not Oil are planning a flashmob at Tate Modern to commemorate the disaster [1].

The group is using Facebook and Twitter to mobilise followers to attend the highly visual protest. Hundreds of people are expected to take part in a ‘BP-sponsored sleep-in’ among the art works and visitors of the gallery. At 2:15PM exactly the participants will spontaneously break from the crowds to don BP branding and fall asleep on the gallery floor [2].

The protest will remind Tate members and visitors that the gallery is sponsored by BP, and express a wider concern that sponsorship of the arts helps to distract public attention from the environmental damage the oil company causes, including the Gulf spill [3].

The event is aimed at damaging BP’s brand, and comes as the company has mounted a major PR campaign in an effort to deflect criticism around the anniversary of the oil spill [4].  At its annual general meeting, the company faced an angry coalition of shareholders, campaigners and residents from the Gulf of Mexico and the Canadian tar sands [5].

Tony Cottee of Rising Tide said: “Sponsorship of galleries such as Tate is one of the most important ways BP tries to buy the public’s acceptance and make people forget about disasters such as the Gulf of Mexico spill. We are here to make sure they don’t get away with it, and to warn Tate that their own reputation is at risk through their association with such a damaged and damaging company.”

He continued: “It’s clear that BP has learnt nothing over the last year. The time has now come for Tate to say, ‘enough is enough’, and break off their relationship with BP once and for all.”

The protest is part of a week of direct action against BP-sponsored cultural institutions, coordinated by groups including London Rising Tide, Art Not Oil, London Climate Camp, Climate Rush and Liberate Tate.

ENDS

For more information, interviews and photo and video footage:  Tony Cottee of London Rising Tide, london@risingtide.org.uk  / 07858 177 178 or 07708 794 665.
http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/bpweekofaction

Notes to Editors

1. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill took place on 20th April 2010. The disaster was caused by the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which killed 11 workers and triggered the largest marine oil spill in history. Since the spill BP has continued to expand into unconventional oil sources, despite the high risks and the impact on the climate. Campaigners’ key concerns include:

•        Re-opened deep-sea drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The US moratorium on BP Gulf drilling was recently lifted, with BP granted permits for 10 new deepwater oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico since April 1st 2011. http://www.boemre.gov/ooc/press/2011/press0408a.htm

•        High-polluting tar sands extraction in Canada. In December 2010, BP announced it was releasing $2.5 billion to move forward with the Sunrise Project in northern Canada. http://www.no-tar-sands.org/campaigns/british-petroleum-bp/

•        Arctic drilling. Despite continuing disputes between the US and Russia over ownership of Arctic resources, BP is pushing ahead with a $7.8B deal with Russian state oil producer Rosneft to begin oil exploration above the Arctic circle. http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7066710

2. More information on the planned protest can be found at: http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/bpweekofaction/flashmob

3. More information on the case against oil sponsorship of the arts can be found at: http://www.platformlondon.org/carbonweb/showitem.asp?article=381&parent…

4. BP spent more than $90m on PR in the first three months of the spill, and has been running  full-page advertisements in the national press all week. http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1064838/BP-runs-ads-Deepwater-H…

5. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/apr/14/bp-faces-storms-of-prote…

6. The Tate group, National Portrait Gallery, British Museum, Science Museum, National History Museum, Royal Opera House, National Theatre and National Maritime Museum all accept sponsorship from BP. The Almeida Theatre recently announced that it no longer accepts sponsorship money from BP.

Groups taking part in the week of protests include:  Art Not Oil, London Climate Camp, Climate Rush, Indigenous Environmental Network, Liberate Tate, London Rising Tide and the UK Tar Sands Network. Many of the groups taking part in the week of protests were involved in the wave of protests that hit Tate and other London galleries last summer. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/24/galleries-museums-sum….Now, go to: The Great BP-Sponsored Sleep-In Events ResourcesTell Tate: stop taking BP's dirty money!
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Climate Camp Maritime Museum Action

By: Art Not Oil
Date: Tue, 05/04/2011 - 1:00am

NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM ACTIONSaturday 16 April 2011, 1pm The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, LondonClimate Camp at National Maritime MuseumOn a sunny spring weekend around 20 activists converged on Greenwich to take part in Climate Camp London's protest against BP's sponsorship of the National Maritime Museum. The event was part of a week-long series of actions and creative interventions against BP's sponsorship of art galleries and cultural institutions in London, planned to coincide with the first anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, which occurred as a consequence of BP's deepwater oil drilling operations. In an effort to repair it's tarnished reputation, and to divert attention from its reponsibility for the largest industrial oil disaster in history, BP is sponsoring major cultural institutions, including the National Maritime Museum. The NMM includes the Maritime Galleries, the Royal Obervatory and the Queens House, all of which overlook Greenwich Park. Greenwich Park is also a planned location for the London 2012 Olympics. As well as being the official oil and gas partner, BP is also one of the sustainability partners of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games (see the London 2012 site, here, for further info).Just before 1pm on saturday, activists from Climate Camp London erected a large white tent in the center of Greenwich Park. Passers-by were soon being engaged in conversation, with many being supportive of the aims of the protest. Children and parents were enticed by the oily cup cakes on offer, and the opportunity to make a paper boat to include in the flotilla petition that would be delivered to the museum at the end of the day. Many of the people spoken to were unaware of the extent of BP's sponsorship of cultural institutions, and there was strong agreement that public bodies such as the NMM should refuse to accept funding from BP.The event passed off smoothly, despite the attempts of local police to force the group to take down their tent, which they claimed needed a permit to be erected. The obvious determination of the activists to resist any attempts to move them on, and the family-friendly nature of the protest, gave the police little option than to let them have their way. Spirits were further lifted by the antics of Spongebob Squarepants and the BP Spillionaire, who kept the crowd entertained through the afternoon.Just before 5 o'clock a letter to the Director of the National Maritime Museum was delivered to museum staff, along with the flotilla petition which included around 100 paper boats. A diorama of an oil-covered Spongebob Squarepants and his oily pineapple house was also given to the museum to add to their collection. Around 800 flyers explaining the connection between BP's environmentally destructive oil extraction and its sponsorship of the arts were handed out over the course of the afternoon. And by being located directly under the viewing balcony of the Royal Observatory, the protest would have been captured in the lenses of a few thousand visitors to the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site.For more photos, see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35069488@N08/sets/72157626390633207/
http://www.demotix.com/news/660562/climate-camp-activists-petition-maritime-museum-reject-bp-sponsors
http://www.demotix.com/news/660388/protesters-say-no-bp-sponsorshipCopy of letter delivered to Dr Fewster, Director of NMM:Dear Dr Fewster, The National Maritime Museum is rightly recognised as one of the the UK's greatest cultural institutions, and a wonderful display and archive of knowledge about Britain's maritime history.  But we are saddened by NMM's association with BP through the money you receive from BP Shipping. Wednesday, April 20th, marks the first anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 workers and caused countless damage to fragile ecosystems and to the local community. Subsequent investigations revealed that BP had overlooked numerous essential safety procedures to cut costs, and that BP has a history of safety violations across the US. BP had claimed that they had the capacity to deal with a deepwater blowout of this size, but the technologies they had prepared were clearly inadequate. Today, millions of people living along the Louisiana, Alabama and Florida  coasts have to deal with loss of their livelihoods through fishing and tourism. The Corexit used by BP to 'clean up' the oil has sent much of the oil to the sea floor, where it is severely damaging marine life. Corexit is banned in the UK as a dangerous and toxic substance and its negative ecological and human health impacts are well documented, but BP chose to spray millions of gallons - including directly onto fishermen working in their boats - of it into the Gulf so that the water would look cleaner from the surface. And it's not just fishermen who were affected by the spill. Schools throughout the three states, even in areas far from the coast, are suffering because of lost tax money usually brought in by tourism. Some are fighting back with lawsuits, while others are resorting to layoffs. BP pledged $20 billion of compensation money, but many of the claims aren't being honoured as families lose their mortgages, suffer oil and corexit-induced health problems and sink further into poverty. It is painfully ironic, then, that BP Shipping sponsors a museum that guards the history of many brave and resourceful individuals who lived by and on the seas. Here is what two mariners from Louisiana have to say to you:
'Isn't the purpose of a maritime museum to honour and support maritime endeavours? When we're gone, is that what will replace us? A museum?' (Tracy)
'We don't hate BP. I'm a fisherman and I used to work for BP. But I want them to drill responsibly, and take responsibility for their mistakes- and they can't buy their way out of this.' (Byron)  They can't buy their way out of this. BP benefits hugely from its association with the NMM, even though the museum is not publicly branded with its logo.  They use your historic buildings for corporate events and describe your relationship as an important part of their corporate social responsibility portfolio. But BP's business model is not socially responsible. At its AGM on Thursday, BP announced that they would be doubling oil exploration efforts. BP's "Energy Outlook 2030" reveals a business plan that is based around increasing levels of global fossil fuel consumption into the next few decades, committing the planet to climate chaos. If oil consumption continues in the way that BP wants, rising sea levels will go beyond the capacity of the Thames Barrier and London will be permanently flooded. If BP has their way, the Queen's House, the Maritime Museum and the Royal Naval College will all be underwater.Dr Fewster, we know that funding for institutions such as yours is facing hard times. But we appeal to your human judgement, and we ask that you publicly and comprehensively end your relationship with BP.  Now, go to: Events Resources PressTell Tate: stop taking BP's dirty money!

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