Synopses & Reviews
As major oil companies face continual public backlash, many have found it helpful to engage in and#147;art washingand#8221;and#151;donating large sums to cultural institutions to shore up their good name. But what effect does this influx of oil money have on these institutions?
Artwash explores the relationship between funding and the production of the arts, with particular focus on the role of big oil companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, and Shell.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Reflecting on the role and function of art galleries, Artwash considers how the association with oil money might impede these institutions in their cultural endeavors. Outside the gallery space, Mel Evans examines how corporate sponsorship of the arts can obscure the strategies of corporate executives to maintain brand identity and promote their public image through cultural philanthropy. Ultimately, Evans sounds a note of hope, presenting ways artists themselves have challenged the ethics of contemporary art galleries and examining how cultural institutions might change.
Review
andquot;Americans might read Artwash and its British focus and say it canand#39;t happen here, but itand#39;s already happening. Look no further than The Metropolitan Museum of Artand#39;s new $65 million David H. Koch Plaza, or the $100 million David H. Koch Theater (home to the New York City Ballet and New York City Opera), or the $15 million David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonianand#39;s National Museum of Natural History that, according to the website, helps answer the question, and#39;What does it mean to be human?and#39;andquot;
Synopsis
Cultural institutions make choices. This is the central argument of Artwash, a book which explores the relationship between the funding and production of the arts in Britain, with particular focus on the role of Big Oil companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell.
Reflecting on the current discussion of the role and function of art galleries, Artwash considers how the association with Big Oil might impede these institutions in their cultural endeavors. Stepping outside of the gallery space, Mel Evans discusses how narratives around corporate sponsorship of the arts blur the issue and obscure the strategies of oil company PR executives to maintain brand and public image via cultural philanthropy. In its conclusion the book sounds a note of hope by describing the methods used by artists to challenge the ethics of the contemporary art galleries and examining the possibility of how cultural institutions might change.
Artwash is an important and timely contribution to the study of culture in modern Britain. It is sure to find a wide readership both among students of cultural studies and among practitioners and patrons of the arts.
Synopsis
*Shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Prize, 2016* *Shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize, 2015* * Shortlisted for the Academy of British Cover Design Awards, 2015* Artwash is an intervention into the unsavoury role of the Big Oil company's sponsorship of the arts in Britain. Based on the high profile campaign 'Liberate Tate', Mel Evans targets Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell's collaboration with institutions such as the Tate in an attempt to end the poisonous relationship forever. Based on years of undercover research, grassroots investigation and activism as well as performance and cultural interventions, Mel Evans draws together the story of the campaign and its journey which has gone from strength to strength. Artwash shows how corporate sponsorship of the arts erases unsightly environmental destruction and obscures the strategies of oil company PR executives who rely on cultural philanthropy. The conclusion sounds a note of hope: major institutions (such as the Southbank Centre) have already agreed to cut sponsorship, and tribunals are happening which are taking these relationships to task. Artists and employees are developing new methods of work which publicly confront the oil companies. Like the anti-tobacco campaign before it, this will be an important cultural and political turn for years to come.
About the Author
Mel Evans is an artist and campaigner associated with Liberate Tate and Platform. As well as making unsanctioned performance works at Tate and writing on oil sponsorship of the arts, she creates theater pieces in the City of London that examine culture, finance, and big oil.
Table of Contents
List of illustrations and tables
List of acronyms
List of characters
1. Introduction
2. Big Oiland#8217;s artwash epidemic
3. Culture and Capital
4. Discrete logos, big spills
5. The impact of BP on Tate: an unhappy context for art
6. Opposition to oil sponsorship and interventions in gallery spaces
7. Conclusion
Notes
Index