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Good News
Kat Barton
Shell forced out
by Art Not Oil
Climate campaigners won an
important victory at the end of
January when multinational oil
company Shell was ditched as
sponsor of the annual Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife
Magazine `Wildlife Photographer
of the Year' exhibition.
The campaign against Shell's
sponsorship of the exhibition was
co-ordinated by direct action
group Rising Tide and was part of
its Art Not Oil campaign which
seeks to end oil industry sponsorship of arts and culture. Art Not
Oil used creative direct action Â
often involving protesters dressed
as endangered species  to highlight the absurdity of Shell's
involvement in an exhibition centred on wildlife. Actions such as
pouring green paint over the exhibition to illustrate Shell's use of
cultural events to `greenwash' its
image as well as occupying BBC
Wildlife Magazine headquarters in
Bristol and handing out leaflets to
employees, proved very successful. The Bristol action marked a
turning point as it became apparent that a lot of people working at
BBC Wildlife Magazine were
opposed to Shell's involvement
and willing to raise the issue within the organisation.
Direct action was not the only
method used to get the message
across: letters were sent to
trustees of the museum and to
BBC Wildlife Magazine; leaflets
were distributed at the Natural
History Museum every month
(their activities were so popular
with the public that people often
queued to take leaflets!); and
campaigners set up a speaking
tour of the UK Â in conjunction
with Friends of the Earth  with a
South African activist sharing his
experiences of Shell's destruction
of wildlife and community.
One of the most effective
responses to Shell's involvement
was Art Not Oil's counter- exhibition `Shell's Wild Lie' (see p11), Art
Not Oil showed the real picture
behind Shell's business by inviting
artists from all over the world to
create pieces illustrating the damage done by Shell to communi-
ties, habitats and wildlife. The
exhibition toured universities, cultural institutions and community
centres across the UK and was
even set up outside the Natural
History Museum on the evening
that the `Wildlife Photographer of
the Year' competition was judged.
As a result, the photographers,
judges and dignitaries who were
queuing for entry to the event got
to see the alternative exhibition.
The `Wildlife Photographer of
the Year' exhibition will be seeking
a new sponsor. In the meantime,
oil companies still sponsor art galleries, exhibitions and other cultural events and Art Not Oil continues to think of creative ways of
putting s stop to this practice.
Art Not Oil, Rising Tide, c/o LARC,
67 Fieldgate Street, London, E1
1ES; info@artnotoil.org.uk
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