Top image: ‘Liberate Tate’ stage a protest at Tate Britain in April, 2011. 

Spanning almost three decades, BP is to end its sponsorship with Tate at the start of next year following an “extremely challenging business environment.” The 26-year-long partnership saw the oil and gas company sponsor Tate’s four art museums – Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives.

The longtime partnership has been enveloped by controversy. Last year, anti-BP climate activist group Liberate Tate engaged in a 25-hour textual intervention at the Tate Modern in a protest against BP’s involvement with the four museums. From staging numerous performance interruptions inside its galleries, to coating a naked man in oil back in 2011, Liberate Tate have explored the many ways to ‘free Tate from BP’.

Head of BP in the UK, Peter Mather, said that the decision to end the partnership was not directly linked to the protests but was ‘a very difficult decision which reflects the extremely challenging business environment in which they were operating.’

Yasmin De Silva, a protestor from Liberate Tate speaks out about the ending partnership. “We’re thrilled with the news Tate is rid of BP. About thirty years ago, the tide turned on tobacco sponsorship, and now the same thing is happening to the oil industry,” she says. “BP is a company whose business model depends on trashing the climate, and it shouldn’t receive credibility by being associated with our most-cherished cultural institutions.”