Artist Donates BP Prize Money to Greenpeace
A growing number of artists and concerned citizens are speaking out against the oil industry’s sponsorship of the arts.
The Guardian reported this week that Henry Christian-Slane, the winner of BP‘s annual Young Artist Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London, donated a portion of his £7,000 prize money to Greenpeace in protest of the multinational oil and gas giant.
The 26-year-old artist and illustrator from New Zealand received the prestigious award for his portrait of his partner, Gabi Lardies.
Christian-Slane told the Guardian that his £1,000 donation to the prominent environmental organization was a “symbolic act” of defiance against BP’s extraction of fossil fuels.
“I hope this action will help keep the issue of BP’s role in climate change from being overshadowed by their contribution to the arts,” he said.
The painter noted he was also “very uncomfortable with the idea that the portrait award was being used to improve BPs image.”
“Big oil companies like BP have the power to prevent the fossil fuels in the ground from entering the atmosphere as greenhouse gases, and we need to…
