Tate director questions British Museum’s BP deal

The British Museum's £50m deal with BP has exposed divisions in the museum sector over fossil fuel sponsorship.

In an interview with the Observer newspaper on 2 June, Tate director Maria Balshaw, who is also chair of the National Museum Directors' Council, was asked why she had been critical of the sponsorship arrangement in her new book, Gathering of Strangers: Why Museums Matter.

Acknowledging that museums are facing significant funding challenges, Balshaw told the interviewer that "the public has moved to a position where they think [the BP deal] inappropriate".

"There’s a dissonance between wishing to be seen as extremely sensitive in the way we relate to other cultures and careful about the resources we consume, and then taking money from a company that has not yet demonstrated whether it’s really committed to changing," she added.

Balshaw said the incoming director of the British Museum, Nicholas Cullinan, is "going to have to deal with a lot of public dismay" regarding the deal. Cullinan, who is joining the museum from the National Portrait Gallery, is due to start the role in the summer.

Balshaw's comments come as protests continue at the British Museum over the BP deal. On Saturday 1 June, a coalition of activists from three campaign groups, BP or not BP, Energy Embargo for Palestine and Parents for Palestine, staged a takeover day at the Bloomsbury institution.

The "coordinated day of action" saw protesters lay giant banners on the steps outside the museum calling for an end to the deal, as well as running a programme of creative activities. One activist, Rani, said in a statement: "The British Museum have chosen to depict BP as essential to our art and culture, in reality they are destroying it."

Energy Embargo for Palestine and Parents for Palestine object to BP's ties with Israel and say the museum is "sponsored by fossil fuel companies profiting from death and destruction".

The museum called police and closed to incoming visitors in response to the demonstration.

The £50m partnership, believed to be the largest sponsorship deal ever at a cultural institution in the UK, will fund the British Museum's multi-year masterplan.

The institution has previously warned that delays to the redevelopment of its Bloomsbury building could put collections at risk. It says the BP partnership will "help deliver on plans to maintain public access for generations to come".

A design competition was launched last month to find an architect to deliver one of the key projects in the masterplan, the refurbishment of the museum's "western range" galleries.

The British Museum has been contacted for comment.