How we kicked BP out of the British Museum

Direct action group 'BP or not BP' explain how, after 11 years and over 70 protest performances, they sent the oil giants packing from another cultural institution.

In 2012, The Royal Shakespeare Company launched a series of plays sponsored by the oil giant BP. In response, a small group of actor-vists began invading the RSC stage with rebel performances before the plays began: lively skits in a Shakespearean style, highlighting serious issues with BP sponsorship. These first BP or not BP? performances (or Reclaim Shakespeare Company, as we were known back then) culminated in a Shakespearean flashmob at the BP-sponsored Shakespeare: Staging the World exhibition at the British Museum, featuring hundreds of people.

Eleven years later, we have held almost 70 protest performances in 11 different oil-sponsored institutions – all of whom (except the Science Museum) have now parted ways with their sponsors.

We have always been satirical and coordinated, smuggling in anything from a pop-up Viking longship to a giant kraken that could be dismantled and stuffed under our clothes. There were times when we were outrageous, wheeling a four-metre-high Trojan horse into the forecourt of the British Museum and bringing over 1500 activists to the museum to protest, chant and sing against the institution's BP sponsorship deal. Every action creatively responded to an array of BP-branded exhibitions (some of which felt almost too on the nose: Sunken Cities anyone?!) but our resounding message was clear: we weren’t going anywhere.

Top to bottom: Photo by Hugh Warwick Photo by Hugh Warwick Photo by Kristian Buus

It’s the British Museum that we kept coming back to the most. It was the toughest nut to crack, the jewel in BP’s sponsorship crown, and a space where we could draw powerful connections between oil sponsorship, colonialism and workers’ rights. BP sponsorship comprised less than 0.5% of the museum’s income at £375,000 per year. In comparison, BP spent over £800,000 on social media adverts in 2022 alone. They walked away from a promised 40% production cut, continuing to pursue extraction while spouting vague ‘net zero’ promises. Through it all the British Museum stood behind them. They backed BP and gave it legitimacy while it partnered with repressive governments, spilled oil into the Gulf of Mexico and poured billions of dollars into extracting new oil and gas. They ignored their own workers when the PCS union passed motions to remove oil sponsorship, and their own trustees when one stepped down over the issue. The museum management refused to listen, dragging their feet and continuing their colonial legacy by supporting harmful extraction in the Global South, all the while refusing to return stolen objects or pay workers fairly.

BP used its 27-year sponsorship of the British Museum to help deflect attention from its pollution, lobbying and backing of climate disinformation. To combat these kinds of deeply entrenched relationships, we found certain priorities were vital to our art activism.

Photo by Ron Fassbender

The first was to foster a culture of solidarity with frontline communities that are most harmed by both BP and the British Museum. In the ‘Stolen Goods’ tours of 2018 and 2019, we supported a series of speakers who challenged the museum to return stolen objects from Indigenous Australia, Iraq, Palestine, the Pacific Islands and Greece, and demanded an end to BP sponsorship. In 2020 we joined a day of action called by Gwich’in and Iñupiaq-led Indigenous groups in Alaska demanding an end to Arctic drilling, which BP has pursued for over 60 years. 

Other campaigns we partnered with included the Free West Papua Campaign, Observatorio Petrolero Sur (Argentina), COSPACC/Congreso de los Pueblos (Colombia), Save our Songlines (Australia), the Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance, London Mexico Solidarity, the campaign for Gilberto Torres, a Colombian trade unionist who was kidnapped and tortured for standing up to oil companies, and Rodney Kelly, whose ancestor’s stolen shield still remains in the museum today. These partnerships were necessary from a moral perspective, and also helped to build the campaign beyond the usual UK environmentalist circles.

Photo by Diana More
Photo by Diana More

The second priority was to know our audience. Museum-goers and cultural audiences don’t enter these spaces as pro-BP representatives; they come because they’re interested in the exhibitions and shows. Perhaps they’ve never thought to question a sponsorship that’s been around for so long or wonder why that might be unethical, and our work could do that while also challenging the institution’s management. By keeping our actions creative, visually impressive and interactive as well as disruptive, we often garnered supportive audiences who agreed with our message, and wanted to be able to engage with culture without co-signing on unethical choices from management. This sustained support helped shift the narrative and turn the tide of public support, leading to what is now a near-wholesale rejection of fossil fuel funding from the cultural sector. Institutions have realised it’s not what their audiences want, and BP have realised they will always get pushback when they try to artwash the severe harm they cause.

This leads on to the final point: persistence. These campaigns haven’t been won overnight, but we have seen staggering changes in the last decade. The British Museum now joins over 14 institutions that have dropped fossil fuel funding, including the Royal Opera House, National Portrait Gallery, BFI, Tate and, of course, the Royal Shakespeare Company. All of these wins were achieved by the determination to keep coming back with direct action until management was forced to listen. It’s only through the resolution and resilience of many, many people that these wins could be achieved.

Photo by Guy Reece
Photo by Ron Fassbender

There is still more to be done. The British Museum must now remove BP’s toxic name from its lecture theatre, and listen to calls for global repatriation. But this is a major win after tireless work from countless climate activists, culture campaigners, arts workers, youth strikers, frontline groups and the wider Art not Oil coalition. 

This seismic shift should be seen as a wake-up call for cultural organisations still partnering with fossil fuel companies⁣, in particular the Science Museum as it maintains its completely isolated endorsement of BP, Equinor and coal-giant Adani. The museum’s own website states that we must act now to avoid ‘severe and irreversible impacts’ of the climate crisis, but it hasn’t seemed to grasp that cutting ties with giant fossil fuel companies is an obvious first step. It's time for museum management to read up on the science themselves and show these sponsors the door.

Though we’re not quite done with the British Museum just yet, we find ourselves with a lot more time on our hands since they dropped BP, so you never know where we might go next…

Follow BP or not BP on Twitter.

Enjoyed this article? Follow Huck on Twitter and Instagram.

Latest on Huck

Red shop frontage with "Open Out" branding and appointment-only signage.
Activism

Meet the trans-led hairdressers providing London with gender-affirming trims

Open Out — Since being founded in 2011, the Hoxton salon has become a crucial space the city’s LGBTQ+ community. Hannah Bentley caught up with co-founder Greygory Vass to hear about its growth, breaking down barbering binaries, and the recent Supreme Court ruling.

Written by: Hannah Bentley

Cyclists racing past Palestinian flag, yellow barriers, and spectators.
Sport

Gazan amputees secure Para-Cycling World Championships qualification

Gaza Sunbirds — Alaa al-Dali and Mohamed Asfour earned Palestine’s first-ever top-20 finish at the Para-Cycling World Cup in Belgium over the weekend.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Crowded festival site with tents, stalls and an illuminated red double-decker bus. Groups of people, including children, milling about on the muddy ground.
© Alan Tash Lodge
Music

New documentary revisits the radical history of UK free rave culture

Free Party: A Folk History — Directed by Aaron Trinder, it features first-hand stories from key crews including DiY, Spiral Tribe, Bedlam and Circus Warp, with public streaming available from May 30.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Weathered wooden building with a tall spire, person on horseback in foreground.
Culture

Rahim Fortune’s dreamlike vision of the Black American South

Reflections — In the Texas native’s debut solo show, he weaves familial history and documentary photography to challenge the region’s visual tropes.

Written by: Miss Rosen

A collage depicting a giant flup for mankind, with an image of the Earth surrounded by planets and people in sci-fi costumes.
Culture

Why Katy Perry’s space flight was one giant flop for mankind

Galactic girlbossing — In a widely-panned, 11-minute trip to the edge of the earth’s atmosphere, the ‘Women’s World’ singer joined an all-female space crew in an expensive vanity advert for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Newsletter columnist Emma Garland explains its apocalypse indicating signs.

Written by: Emma Garland

Three orange book covers with the title "Foreign Fruit" against a dark background.
Culture

Katie Goh: “I want people to engage with the politics of oranges”

Foreign Fruit — In her new book, the Edinburgh-based writer traces her personal history through the citrus fruit’s global spread, from a village in China to Californian groves. Angela Hui caught up with her to find out more.

Written by: Katie Goh

Huck is supported by our readers, subscribers and Club Huck members. It is also made possible by sponsorship from:

Signup to our newsletter

Sign up to our newsletter to informed with the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture, featuring personal takes on the state of media and pop culture from Emma Garland, former Digital Editor of Huck, exclusive interviews, recommendations and more.

Please wait...

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.