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Sir Ian Blatchford says that oil sponsorship for exhibitions on climate change achieve ‘public good’ while also explaining the Science Museum Group’s justification for accepting such funding
Tom Anstey | Planet Attractions | 01 Sep 2021
Protesters entered the Science Museum on August 29, leaving the following morning after refusing to leave when the museum closed Credit: Twitter/@NorwichXr
Sir Ian Blatchford, director of the Science Museum Group (SMG), has addressed the challenge of engaging with members of the public while dealing with persistent protests over ties to fossil fuels, saying that such sponsorship achieves “public good”.
The London Science Museum has particularly been a target over the years, with fossil fuel companies sponsoring a series of major exhibitions. This has led to protest groups such as Extinction Rebellion (XR) invading the museum in protest of its decision to accept such funding.
Most recently, XR criticised the Science Museum for taking funding from Shell for the Our Future Planet exhibition, which began on May 19 and runs until September.
The exhibition, says the Science Museum “highlights the nature-based and technological solutions for taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere,” but XR believes that a company such as Shell sponsoring it is “greenwashing” - a marketing practice that’s used to persuade the public that an organisation's outlook is environmentally friendly.
In protest against the sponsorship, XR supporters entered the museum on August 29, while outside, others waved flags and banners. The protesters inside refused to depart when the museum closed and ignored repeated requests to leave throughout the evening, with some attaching themselves to railings with chains or glueing their hands together.
“Over recent years our team has calmly facilitated protests outside and within the museum, allowing people to have their say – often over the course of many hours,” said Blatchford.
“The reason the Science Museum was among many sites across London to be disrupted by Extinction Rebellion over the past week is that the museum has long-standing relationships with companies such as Shell, BP and Equinor, who provide money for us to fulfil our mission through sponsorship.”
SMG and its Board of Trustees, has long opposed a blanket approach to severing ties with energy companies.
According to SMG, major energy companies have the finances, geography people and logistics to be major players in combating climate change. They also believe the right approach is to challenge these companies to make the global economy less carbon-intensive. Energy companies also have a role to play, says the group, in research and technological innovation in areas such as carbon capture, fuel efficiency and alternative energy.
From SMG’s side, the organisation believes that the sponsorship achieves “public good” and with all such partnerships, the group retains editorial control over the exhibitions. SMG also says that XR has made “unsubstantiated claims questioning the editorial independence” of its exhibitions.
“We entirely reject the false allegation that curators of Our Future Planet were in any way inhibited in carrying out their vital role in an expert, independent and thorough manner. And we invite everyone to come and see this excellent exhibition,” said Blatchford.
“I would like to publicly thank the museum’s team for handling this disruptive situation with great professionalism.”
STEM
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