National Portrait Gallery cuts BP sponsorship after 30 years
The National Portrait Gallery has today announced that it will be cutting its partnership with BP, ending a 30 year relationship with the oil and gas firm.
The announcement follows years of growing opposition to BP’s sponsorship of the Gallery, including the BP Portrait Award. Critics have varied from artist Gary Hume speaking out against the sponsorship while a judge of the annual portrait prize, to numerous creative protests taking place at the Gallery itself.
The news comes as pressure mounts on the British Museum to end its BP sponsorship deal after it was revealed just last week that the Director has already been seeking to renew the partnership, and over 300 archaeologists came out in opposition to the renewal.
In 2019, artist Gary Hume, one of the award’s judges, chose to speak out against BP sponsorship on the day of the award ceremony, along with a group of former winners of the award.
They were then supported by a group of leading artists, who wrote to Director Nicholas Cullinan to call on him to end the partnership, including Turner Prize winners Antony Gormley and Rachel Whiteread.
The award ceremony itself was creatively blockaded by activist theatre group BP or not BP? forcing guests to have to climb over a wall to enter.
This led to BP’s representative being dropped from the judging panel for the 2020 Awards which took place virtually due to Covid. The Gallery then closed for refurbishment and quietly announced there would be no BP Portrait Awards in 2021 and 2022, although its other awards are continuing.
Today’s announcement confirms that the Gallery and BP have decided that the partnership had become too controversial.