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Even oil dictators need a social license to operate – Aliyev’s cultural spending spree
Whether it’s BP’s sponsorship of the Tate galleries, Shell’s funding for the Southbank Centre or Tullow Oil’s controversial deals with Sunderland football club oil company sponsorship of the arts is a familiar phenomenon. But what about oil dictators? Do they also need a social license to operate? What kinds of institutions would they throw money…
16 May 2013 emma -
Tate members accuse Serota of ‘misrepresentation’ over BP questions at AGM
In December last year, a number of Tate Members wrote a letter to the Tate Members Council to raise concerns about the controversial sponsorship deal with BP, and some of those signatories went to the Tate Members AGM to discuss the issues face to face. The AGM was again dominated by the issue, with critical…
14 May 2013 Kevin -
Growing unease in Norway over Statoil and cultural sponsorship
A few months ago we published a blog post from someone who felt that they could no longer engage with the Bergen International Festival because of Statoil sponsorship. It’s now turned into a more sustained debate in Norway about the role that the oil company plays in the cultural sector. Here’s some more info from…
13 May 2013 Kevin -
Gulf Coast organisations respond to Liberate Tate’s ‘BP Trial’ performance
Last week saw art-interventionists Liberate Tate carry out a week long performance in Tate Modern, with three different performers whispering excerpts from the BP trial transcripts for an hour every day. Using specially constructed frames to hold a mobile phone, the performers filmed themselves and live-streamed their delivery so that people from all over the…
29 Apr 2013 Kevin -
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Liberate Tate perform BP trial all week in Tate Modern – #AllRise
Visitors to London’s iconic Tate Modern gallery this week might be a bit bemused to glimpse figures with strange filming devices strapped on to their bodies and wandering about muttering to themselves. It’s the latest performance from art-interventionists Liberate Tate, who are performing the BP trial over the course of the week in Tate Modern,…
23 Apr 2013 Kevin -
Excerpts from Take The Money and Run? New guide on arts, ethics and sponsorship
This week, together with Live Art Development Agency, we are launching a beautiful print and e-version of the Agency’s Study Room Guide ‘Take the money and run? Some positions on ethics, business sponsorship and making art’. The Guide was commissioned by the Agency from Platform, and I took up the interesting task of choosing and…
16 Apr 2013 jane -
Tullow Oil’s Sunderland AFC sponsorship ends amid controversy
Last year we raised some concerns about a new sponsorship deal between Tullow Oil and Sunderland football club, aka Sunderland AFC. Only it wasn’t actually Tullow that was doing the sponsoring, it was a strange body called Invest In Africa, that was all about promoting Africa (homogenous and undifferentiated continent that it is) as a…
11 Apr 2013 Kevin -
Final call for proposals: artist-led funded projects with Platform & LADA
This Monday is the deadline for DIY 10 proposals. Get yours in now! DIY is an opportunity for artists working in Live Art to conceive and run unusual training and professional development projects for other artists. Platform’s call is for “Live Art, performance as protest and the online element.” Platform invites proposals that look at performance…
5 Apr 2013 Mel