Rio Tinto was the principal sponsor of a six-year project with the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Desert River Sea: Kimberley Art Then & Now.Īdelaide arts festival Tarnanthi is sponsored by BHP.īut mining companies have negatively impacted the traditional lands of many First Nations groups around the world, as well as important Indigenous cultural sites, such as the destruction of Juukan Gorge last year.ĭoes sponsoring an Indigenous art exhibition assuage the guilt? There are many examples in Australia of arts organisations accepting sponsorship from mining companies.īHP is the principal sponsor of Tarnanthi at the Art Gallery of South Australia, an important festival of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. In March that year, Malcolm Turnbull (then Minister for Communications) called the artists “ viciously ungrateful”, and George Brandis (then Minister for the Arts) requested the Australia Council craft a policy saying arts organisations could “not unreasonably refuse private sector funding” on political grounds.īrandis then removed $105 million from the Council in 2015. At the time, Transfield was contracted to manage the offshore detention centres in Nauru and Manus Island.Īfter the protests, the festival broke ties with their sponsor. The most infamous recent case in Australia remains the 2014 protests against the relationship between the Sydney Biennale and Transfield. The Tate Museum, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Edinburgh Festival have all determined they will no longer accept funding from BP. Similar protests have been held throughout the UK in recent years in relation to cultural support from BP. The director of the museum, Ian Blatchford, defended the sponsorship, arguing Shell is helping in “finding solutions” through its engagement with the museum. Providing this support, they can appear to be part of the solution, rather than the creator of the problem.Įarlier this month there was a two-day protest at London’s Science Museum against Shell’s sponsorship of an exhibition called Our Future Planet, looking at climate change solutions. Unsurprisingly, fossil fuel companies across the world are keen to support arts and cultural activity. Their profile is enhanced by the association. Companies want to demonstrate they are generous and socially responsible. This money allows them to pay artists, reach broader audiences and keep creating new work.įor corporations, arts sponsorship is used to generate positive publicity. ![]() With climate change as an overarching global threat, should arts organisations take money from the companies that are part of the problem?Įveryone in the arts is always short of money, and corporate sponsorship is often an important part of a company’s income mix. This is a much bigger question than one festival and one sponsor. If they decline to participate, they do not get to show their work. If they participate in an event paid for by the mining company, they are acting as collaborators. But this is a no-win situation for the artists. ![]() We are excited to be embarking on a new phase of the partnership ARTRAGE is not in the business of making political statements or taking a stance on the subject we will leave that up to our artists.įrom this statement, it seems artists are now welcome to protest about funding arrangements. ![]() Speaking about the reworked sponsorship deal, ARTRAGE CEO Sharon Burgess said:
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