Climate Choir demands British Museum stop funding from BP

This week scientists, largely ignored by the press, warned us that the Arctic could have an ice-free day in as little as three years.  Sea ice has declined by more than 12 per cent every decade since 1978 as a result of our Greenhouse Gas emissions. 

With this in mind, the Climate Choir travelled to London to carry out their most spectacular flashmob protest yet. 

Six Sheffielders joined 200 people from choirs all around the country at the British Museum in London on Saturday afternoon to deliver a musical message demanding the end to BP sponsorship.

The Climate Choir Movement objects to the British Museum’s acceptance of a £50m “gift” from BP. On Saturday the Great Court of the British Museum was taken over by the Climate Choir Movement. They stood up in the café and sang in three-part harmony: ‘It’s time to drop BP! Don’t take their dirty money!’ The singers then processed to the entrance of the British Museum Great Court, the largest covered public square in Europe, and performed the classical hit Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss (from the film 2001 A Space Odyssey), complete with new anti-BP words. With this performance, the UK-based environmental choir network pulled off their most dramatic stunt yet.  

Three masked actors, representing museum director Nicholas Cullinan, BP boss Murray Auchincloss and chair of museum trustees George Osborne, paraded with the choir, while a massive banner declaring ‘Drop BP’ was suspended above the Great Court. A second banner declared ‘Human Culture from the Beginning to the End: The British Museum with British Petroleum’. Their message was clear. It was time for the British Museum to drop its controversial deal with BP. Last year it was announced that the British Museum’s exhibitions would no longer be BP-branded after its existing 5-year sponsorship wasn’t renewed. However, the Museum has continued working with the oil giant differently – by controversially accepting £50m from BP towards its 10-year redevelopment plan. Critics of the deal have also pointed out the conflict of interest in the Chair of the Museum and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne having multiple links with BP. 

This year has seen multiple catastrophic climate events and is set to be the hottest year ever on record with floods, drought, and heat killing thousands.  Against this backdrop, BP has scaled back climate targets while making billions of dollars in profits. It has also abandoned its goal to cut oil output by 2030. 

BP has also been accused of fuelling the ongoing genocide in Gaza by providing oil to refineries that produce fuel for IDF warplanes. Previously, the oil giant was also awarded oil licences from Israel in waters off the coast of Gaza. The highly controversial decision to take BP’s dirty money has only added to the ongoing debate about ethical fundraising and sponsorship in the culture sector, with it initially causing concern among trustees and appearing to lead to Muriel Gray’s resignation from the Board. 

In June this year, the director of Tate, Maria Balshaw, spoke out about BP’s sponsorship deal, saying that “the public has moved to a position where they think it is inappropriate”. 

Leader of the Sheffield Climate Choir, Steph Howlett, said “The British Museum displays beautiful objects from across the world, many made hundreds or thousands of years ago, and celebrates the cultural diversity of our beautiful planet. So why are they accepting funding from BP who are making record-breaking profits from exploiting climate-wrecking fossil fuels? BP uses this sort of cultural sponsorship to present itself as a benevolent, responsible company searching for sustainable solutions, while being well aware of the devastating harm they are doing, all for the profits of their CEOs and shareholders. By accepting funding from them the British Museum is complicit in BP’s cultural greenwashing. It needs to drop this funding and think of the cultural heritage of future generations.”

Sheffield Climate Choir member Steve Sinclair said “The flashmob event at the British Museum was well received by the public who saw it and those who took part but, as usual, the mainstream media didn’t think it worth mentioning or chose to ignore it completely. I hope that BP and the powers at the British Museum will take notice. Well done all those who gave up their time to bring this scandal to the attention of the general public. I hope the powers that be heard our message.”

Climate Choir co-founder Jo Flanagan added, “We now know, due to recently unearthed documents, that major oil companies including BP were alerted to the planet-warming effects of fossil fuels as early as 1954, that the product they profited from could pose a threat to the stability of the Earth’s climate. Now, shocking evidence shows they were denying, dismissing, and downplaying the risk of burning fossil fuels during really early attempts to crack down on sources of pollution. At the same time, they spent millions to boost their public image as a responsible partner in the search for climate or clean air solutions. This is a carbon copy – pun intended – of exactly what the tobacco industry did when they knew their products caused cancers, and then used cultural sponsorship to deflect attention from failure to act on the damage they caused”.

A spokesperson for BP or not BP? which has campaigned against BP’s sponsorship of the British Museum said, “The British Museum’s director, Nicholas Cullinan, is still trying to defend the museum’s indefensible decision to accept BP’s dirty money. In an interview with the Sunday Times he was asked ‘Will accepting it cause us reputational damage?’  and the answer is a resounding ‘yes’. For over 10 years, we have joined with allies from across the arts, the climate movement and communities directly impacted by BP, in opposing this toxic partnership. By continuing its cosy relationship with BP, Cullinan and the Board of Trustees are choosing to collude with one of the planet’s biggest fossil fuel villains and failing in their legal duty to protect the Museum’s reputation”.