Redefining Arts Sponsorship

The headline story in arts and cultural sponsorship for the last few years has been the showdown between rights holders (events and institutions) and activists over which brands should be deemed as suitable partners for the sector. 

Initially oil and gas giant BP was a lightning rod for protests. But more recently financial services company Baillie Gifford attracted the ire of activists and pulled its investment from the arts. A similar situation arose in the music festival sphere, with Barclays suspending its Live Nation partnership because of opposition to its involvement.

It’s a complex issue which, unfortunately, polarises people who are probably all arts and culture advocates. On the one hand, there are those whose conscience will not allow them to acquiesce in partnerships that they perceive as green/whitewashing. Actor Mark Rylance summed this position up when he quit the RSC over its association with BP. At the time, he said: “I do not wish to be associated with BP any more than I would with an arms dealer, a tobacco salesman or anyone who wilfully destroys the lives of others alive and unborn. Nor, I believe, would William Shakespeare.”

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