Alistair Hardaker | Image: The 'Make BP History' protest in at the British Museum in April 2022 (Ron Fassbender)
BP’s sponsorship of the Science Museum Group has ended after eight years, as campaigners continue pushing cultural institutions to cut oil ties
The Science Museum Group’s eight-year partnership with oil and gas company BP has ended.
In 2018, BP began sponsorship of the group’s Academy, which delivers training and resources for museum practitioners and STEM professionals.
The museum did not explain why the partnership wasn’t renewed, saying only that the sponsorship had reached its agreed contract term on Monday 31 August.
It said its Academy courses continue to be available to book for 2026 and dates for courses in 2027 will be announced this autumn.
The sponsorship’s end was welcomed by campaigners, who have long argued that funding from oil and gas companies is unethical.
Climate campaigning work in recent years has mounted pressure on cultural institutions to end ties to oil and gas companies. It has included protests within museums, boycotted school trips, and trustee resignations.
In 2021 Science Museum Group board members Dr Jo Foster and Dr Hannah Fry resigned from their posts following a disagreement over ongoing sponsorship from the renewable energy arm of Adani Group, one of the largest private coal mining and energy conglomerates.
A spokesperson for Culture Unstained, which campaigns against fossil fuel sponsorship of culture, called the end of the BP sponsorship “a partial victory”, citing the museum’s ongoing partnership with Adani, which has sponsored the Science Museum’s Adani Green Energy Gallery since its opening in 2024.
The end of the Science Museum Group’s partnership with BP follows a string of similar departures: Tate ended a 26-year sponsorship in 2016, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) ended its BP sponsorship deal in 2019, and the Royal Opera House ended a 33-year sponsorship in 2023.
The British Museum renewed its partnership with the company for £50m in 2023 to help fund its masterplan redevelopment. That partnership is set to continue until 2033.
Sir Ian Blatchford, director and chief executive of the Science Museum Group, said BP’s contributions “helped us to inspire more than 11,000 education, museum and science professionals through research-informed science engagement training, supporting vital work to spark curiosity and bring science to life for more than a million young people across the country.”
