Tate members to resign over oil sponsorship deal

A number of fee-paying Tate members will publicly resign at the 55th Members AGM at Tate Britain tonight over an on-going controversy about Tate’s sponsorship deal with oil company BP.

A statement by Jamie Kelsey Fry and Sunniva Taylor, who are resigning, explains that they “cannot any longer justify to ourselves being members of an organisation which is in bed with BP – a company whose very business model is reliant on destroying the climate.”

The resignations come after a larger group of Tate members attempted to raise the issue of BP’s sponsorship at last year’s AGM and sent letters to the Tate Members Council which governs the charity arm.

The Council took five months to respond that they were unable to engage with the members’ concerns.

Two weeks ago, 50 members of the art collective Liberate Tate performed ‘Parts Per Million’ at the reopening of Tate Britain. This was the latest in a series of protest performances on Tate premises since 2010 by the collective which aims to “free art from oil”.

Tate receives approximately £5m a year through its Members scheme which was established in 1958 as Friends of the Tate. BP’s current arts sponsorship is worth £10m over five years, shared between the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Opera House and Tate.

Kevin Smith from oil-watchdog Platform said: “The controversy over Tate’s relationship with BP is not only affecting Tate’s brand, it’s now provoking fee-paying members to resign. Now is the time for Tate to be arranging an alternative to BP sponsorship that doesn’t provoke such revulsion amongst its gallery-goers.”