This. Is. It. The British Museum’s current 5-year deal with BP is coming to an end – but the Museum’s management have been holding private talks with oil giant about signing a new sponsorship deal.
This Saturday, hundreds of people will be carrying out a mass creative action at the British Museum to say: Make BP History!
There are three key trustees who are on Twitter and might be open to persuasion on BP. Click any of the buttons below to send a template tweet asking them to oppose the deal with BP. You can also personalise or amend the tweet however you see fit. Please be polite and respectful in any communication with the Director and Trustees - we are trying to win them over and persuade them to do the right thing.
You can also help add pressure by sending an email directly to Hartwig Fischer, the Director of the British Museum.
Or if you prefer, you can copy the text below, paste it into a new email, and send it to [email protected] (and CC in [email protected])
To the British Museum’s Director and Trustees:
I am writing to you about the possibility of the Museum renewing its sponsorship deal with the oil giant BP.
I, along with many others, urge you not to renew the sponsorship deal. BP has no place in our cultural institutions.
The world’s scientists have issued their ‘bleakest warning yet’ of the impacts of unchecked carbon emissions. Meanwhile, BP has been lobbying for fossil fuels and undermining climate policy and efforts at a time when we should be looking for solutions to climate change. BP has had terrible impacts on Indigenous and Global South communities who are at the frontline of the climate crisis. Its past and present ties to wars and dictatorships – Russia being one of these cases – are extremely concerning. Additionally, BP has massively profited from the dire energy crisis where prices have risen exponentially and millions in the UK struggle with the choice between heating and eating. BP does not reflect the values of an organisation that seeks to protect culture in a positive and sustainable way.
We know that BP wreaks havoc wherever it goes. It has no place in our cultural institutions. And by siding with BP, the British Museum is on the wrong side of history.
Earlier this year, 315 academics, curators, museum and heritage professionals, archaeologists, and others sent an open letter to the Museum highlighting concerns across the sector about the BP sponsorship deal. Professionals and cultural custodians across the sector are concerned about this. And so are your visitors – which is why I am writing to you.
In the past six years, 14 UK cultural institutions have dropped their sponsorships with fossil fuel companies. It is embarrassing to see that the Museum is even considering renewing this deal.
Oil has no place in our future society. It has no place in our public cultural institutions.
I urge you, once again, not to sign a new BP sponsorship deal.
[Sign your name here]
Want to follow the action at the British Museum on Saturday? Check out BP or not BP? on Twitter (the action starts at 4pm!) and keep an eye on the hashtag #DropBP!