By 
Here’s an update from our friends at Platform in London, England.
Platform is shining a spotlight on BP’s corporate sponsorship of the Arts. For the past 20 years, Tate Britain – arguably Britain’s leading art gallery – has been taking money from BP, in exchange for promoting the BP brand at the Tate gallery’s cultural events.
“This Monday Tate is having a Summer Party celebrating 20 years of BP sponsorship. Taking money from BP lends big corporate oil the kudos of a key public cultural institution – it hands over a licence to spill.
“The vast and ugly Gulf of Mexico oil spill shows for the thousandth time that Big Oil sees no risk too reckless. Public art institutions should no longer prop them up. Yet, Shell and BP have between them sponsored almost all of London’s most prestigious museums and cultural institutions over the course of the last decade.
“And, it’s peanuts – the actual figure has been kept hidden by both BP and Tate but it’s estimated to be as little as 0.5% of Tate’s annual budget. They wouldn’t take tobacco money. Other big art galleries like Baltic in Newcastle, Arnolfini in Bristol or GoMA in Glasgow don’t take dirty money. It’s time for Tate to quit Big Oil.”
I’d like to see BP refocus those resources on cleaning up their mess in the gulf.