The Magic Number
Platform calls for full public disclosure on how much BP sponsorship of the Tate is worth.
In the Evening Standard in June 2010, painter Anthony Fry asserted that “It would be a disaster for the arts if BP withdrew its support.”16 Fry’s claim was made without the benefit of any financial accounts to support this judgement. For all sides of the debate around oil sponsorship of the arts, this figure would provide a solid point of reference to discuss the value of BP sponsorship, and the practical steps in a move away from it. Tate refuses to disclose the actual amount BP provides annually. Numerous requests have been made over the past ten years via Freedom of Information Act requests or letters addressed to the Tate Board. The request has been refused on the grounds that disclosure would be “harmful to business interests”, without specifying how it would be harmful, and how it has been decided that those business interests outweigh public interest. The figure used in the data used in the images on p. 2425 is a very loose estimation’ based on Tate annual reports and comments made by BP employees such as Arts & Culture Director Des Volaris. The estimated BP sponsorship is £385,000, founded on BP references to it in the press.17 These figures are wholly inaccurate and the data visualisations are imagined on the basis of this unverified information to serve as illustrative emphasis only, on the need for this information to be revealed. The figure is expressed as a percentage of Tate sponsorship income 2010-11 (£3.191m18), 12%, and as a percentage of Tate annual spending 2010-11 (£98.589m19), 0.4%. We would welcome a correction by Tate disclosing how much it actually receives annually from BP. One data visualisation gives the same title to BP's estimated sponsorship of Tate as ex-BP CEO Tony Hayward’s damaging description of the Deepwater Horizon spill – “relatively tiny” compared with the “very big ocean.”20 CULTURE BEYOND OIL 23