Arts leaders call for end to ‘activist negativity’ around corporate arts sponsorship

Major national arts organisations, including the National Theatre and The Old Vic, have supported an open letter arguing for greater acceptance of corporate sponsorship in the sector.

The letter, published in the Financial Times, notes that there are significant benefits to working in partnership with businesses. Its publication comes 12 months after global investment manager Baillie Gifford ended its partnerships with literary festivals following pressure from activists and artists.

“Corporate sponsorship can never provide a replacement for public funding,” said the letter.

“However, partnering with businesses ensures our work goes further and has a greater impact. It adds more value and enables growth, ambition and risk-taking.

“Through partnerships, arts organisations also actively engage with the organisations that shape how we live.”

“Our museums, theatres, festivals and artists need to operate within the economic structures in which society operates.“

The letter was penned by Alistair Spalding and Britannia Morton, co-CEOs of Sadler’s Wells. It has been supported by 10 major arts organisations: V&A, British Museum, Donmar Warehouse, National Theatre, National Gallery, Science Museum Group, Royal Ballet & Opera, Southbank Centre, The Old Vic and Edinburgh International Festivals.

Since October 2023, Sadler’s Wells has faced mounting criticism, protests and questions over the ethics of its funding relationship with Barclays, amid claims that the bank invests in fossil fuels and Israeli arms companies.

Barclays is a ‘principal partner’ of the venue and, through its Dance Pass, offers £10 tickets to 16- to 30-year-olds.

Pressure from artists

Last year, investment management firm Baillie Gifford cancelled its sponsorship deals with literary festivals across the UK, including Hay, after protests over its links to both Israel and fossil fuel companies.

Campaign group Fossil Fuel Books was among those pressuring the company to cease involvement in the fossil fuel industry and demanding it cut ties to companies linked to Israel. The group published an open letter, which received more than 700 signatures of support from leading writers and publishing industry professionals.

Shortly afterwards, Barclays stepped back as a sponsor of all Live Nation festivals in the UK, including Download, Latitude and the Isle of Wight Festival, because artists threatened not to perform over the bank’s ties to firms that supply weapons to Israel.

The artists’ boycotts were criticised by some at the time, including former Culture Secretary Ed Vaizey, who said in a Channel 4 debate: “We live in a complex and globalised world and it’s going to be very hard – if you take Barclays out of the picture – to find a bank that’s not funding something connected with Israel.

“If that happens to be your position, it’s massively counterproductive.

However, many others disagreed, including Tate director Maria Balshaw, who told The Observer last June that she thought the public were beginning to think that the British Museum’s ongoing sponsorships from oil giant BP were “inappropriate”.

“There’s a dissonance between wishing to be seen as extremely sensitive in the way we relate to other cultures and careful about the resources we consume, and then taking money from a company that has not yet demonstrated whether it’s really committed to changing,” Balshaw said of The Bristish Museum, which like Tate receives support from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Naming rights

The broad support for Spalding and Morton’s letter signals a shift among arts leaders, as they become more vocal in discussing the unfeasibility of relying on public funding and seeking sustainable financing models.

Last month, arts consultant Martin Prendergast called for “sophistication and maturity” in the debate around protests of corporate sponsorship deals in the culture sector.

Speaking at The Stage’s Future of Theatre conference, Prendergast said naming rights deals were “the way that the industry is going to go”, adding that with funding becoming more scarce, they are “potentially a big lever for arts institutions to pull”.

Last week, Prendergast revealed that his new organisation, Cultural Capital Partners, is in the process of brokering a corporate naming rights deal for The Shakespeare North Playhouse in Knowsley, which could be worth £300,000 a year over 10 years.

Cultural Capital Partners is co-owned by Elliot Willis, who previously secured the £35 million naming rights deal for the Manchester venue Aviva Studios.

Responding to Spalding and Morton’s letter on LinkedIn, Predergast said: “I’m fairly pragmatic about this subject. Artists and arts institutions need funds to imagine different futures. Protests limit funding and, as far as I can see, don’t drive any meaningful change. For me, the causes are right but the targets are wrong.”