Action: Greenwash

 As both a Rising Tide UK Campaign and a Rising Tide National Group, "Art Not Oil" has railed against Big Oil cultural sponsorship since 2004. We are pleased to announce it has now become a coalition of autonomous organisations united around the aim of ending oil sponsorship of the arts and sharing resources as the Art Not Oil Coalition.

The founding members of this new coalition alongside Rising Tide UK are:- Liberate Tate, Platform, the Reclaim Shakespeare Company, Shell Out Sounds and the UK Tar Sands Network; who have agreed to campaign together under the following :-

ART NOT OIL COALITION JOINT STATEMENT

Three Rising Tide activists attended the Shell London
Lecture Series at Burlington House, Piccadilly, 2012.  Bruce Levell, the
Vice President of Emerging Technologies, delivered a lecture on the
Geological Aspects of Renewable Energy.

23.6.12 - Saturday, 30 June 2012, 15:05.

Hot on the heels of their appearance at the Shell vs. Bodo case at the High Court (http://bit.ly/LgLiw0) activists from London Rising Tide, along with friends from Shell to Sea and Art Not Oil, staged a protest inside and outside the Royal Festival Hall on Saturday 23rd June, highlighting the greenwashing of Shell's tarnished image through cultural sponsorship in their 'Shell Classic International' festival at the Southbank Centre.

Shell-out Sponsorship = buying us off

By sponsoring our cultural institutions, Shell tries to protect its reputation, distract our attention from its environmental and human rights crimes around the world and buy our acceptance. When we challenge this, we strike a blow at Shell’s brand, chip away at its power and move  towards the day when Big Oil – like Big Tobacco – is no longer seen as socially acceptable. As we once kicked the tobacco companies out of our cultural institutions we must now do the same to the oil industry.

Yesterday's prestigious Planet Under Pressure 2012 conference in the International Conference Centre (ICC) at the ExCeL Centre, London was interrupted by two London Rising Tide protesters.

A great film made by a friend of ours.

If you're in a hurry, here's the pitch: BP is sponsoring the 2012 Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival in the UK. Do you have a creative response to this situation? If so, please contact us here: info@artnotoil.org.uk or 07709 545116. Let us know if you could help illustrate and/or design a leaflet on this issue.

Here's a more detailed explanation ...

Thursday 10th November marked the sixteenth anniversary of the killing of ken saro-wiwa and eight other activists in nigeria. on the 9th, shell, complicit in their execution, was polishing its image by sponsoring an awards event for young entrepeneurs at the centrepoint building in central london. london rising tide organised a reminder of shell's bloody history outside the event, involving grim reapers, sombre drums, and hundreds of leaflets.

Click 'read more' to watch the video.