Let us know if you'd like any more information.
Images can be found here:
 http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/gallery/v/ShellAction/

Cheers,

Art Not Oil

PS. Here's 'The Stage' coverage:
 http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/feature.php/22157/chit-chat-hytner-miss-or-maybe-an-attack-

'A total Shell out'
Published Monday 20 October 2008 at 16:35 by Tabard

While Tabard is on the subject of missives purporting to be from somebody
they are not, we’d like to share with you a ‘press release’ that passed
across The Stage’s desks last week claiming to be from Nicholas Hytner,
artistic director of the National Theatre.

In it, Hytner supposedly sets out his desire to launch a debate about the
ethics of arts sponsorship - revolving around whether it was right and
proper that the National should be accepting money from the oil company
Shell.

In the release, Hytner says: “For some time now, we have been very
grateful to receive financial support from various companies whose vision
has been matched only by their resources. It has worked very well - we
have been able to continue our work, despite the haemorrhaging of public
funds away from the arts and other essential services and towards
unnecessary wars to secure future reserves of oil. These companies have
considered it prudent to ally themselves to prestigious cultural
institutions, and to allow a little kudos to rub off on them.

“Our corporate supporters may have ‘reputational issues’ which cause some
to question whether they belong at the National at all. But they may have
sympathisers within the building who might say ‘This theatre cherishes an
autonomy that allows it to push the creative envelope in whichever
direction it wishes, and sometimes to pose troubling questions about life,
death and everything in between in the 21st century. Is that worth
sacrificing?’

“However, rather than ignore these potential brickbats, and to add to our
impressive existing energy-saving initiatives, we have decided to take the
bull by the horns…We are extremely grateful to Shell for its support, but
we would also like a planet to live, love and act on in the years to come.
For that reason, we hope this production of Oedipus [currently on stage at
the National and sponsored by Shell] - as well as stimulating, shocking
and moving audiences - will help open up a space where we can talk about
the role that oil, and oil companies, play in maintaining a western way of
life that appears to be having toxic impacts across the board…

“We think we are the first major cultural institution to call for a public
debate about the ethical and climatic impacts of its financial
relationships, and we hope that we will soon be able to join with the
National Portrait Gallery, Royal Opera House, Tate Galleries, National
Gallery, Science Museum, British Museum, National Maritime Museum and
Natural History Museum (all at least for the moment recipients of funding
from BP, Shell or both) in launching a campaign for public funds to be
diverted from the UK’s vast military budget towards the public good,
allowing us to bid farewell to some of our more controversial corporate
sponsors.”

It all sounds rather unlikely and the truth of the matter is, of course,
that Hytner didn’t say any of this. The release is a spoof, apparently
engineered by a lobby group. Although, exactly what they were trying to
achieve - other than the NT potentially losing a lucrative sponsorship
deal - is not 100% clear.
---------
And our response:
'Dear Sir,

Tabard surmises correctly that the Press Release purporting to spring from
the pen of National Theatre boss Nicholas Hytner and asking for a public
debate on the ethics of oil industry sponsorship of the arts is a spoof
('A total Shell out', The Stage, 23.10.08). It came from us, in an
admittedly mischievous and impatient desire to see the world of art and
culture wake up and smell the devastation caused by the oil industry
wherever it operates. This appears to have upset the NT, which certainly
wasn't our intention.

The day is not far off - and it may well be triggered by a climate
change-related disaster on the scale of the 2006 New Orleans hurricane,
but closer to home - when sponsorship relationships like that between
Shell and the National Theatre will be seen as unacceptable. Warm
relationships between tobacco companies and cultural institutions
flourished in the recent past, but then soured as the public mood altered.
This is also bound to happen as positive public perceptions of oil
companies begin to crumble. It's our hope that this crumbling, allied
perhaps to pressure for greater state funding of the arts, will take place
sooner rather than later.

When it comes to the climate - and along with it, breathable air,
drinkable water and fertile earth beneath our feet - time is increasingly
short....

Yours,

Sam Chase, Art Not Oil'


--
London Rising Tide,
c/o 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES; Tel: 07708 794665
www.londonrisingtide.org.uk
www.artnotoil.org.uk - (send us your art!)
Shell is sponsoring 'Oedipus' at the National Theatre.
Send your artworks in to our online counter-exhibition:
 http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/gallery/v/ShellAction/
See also the Camp for Climate Action site: climatecamp.org.uk
as well as Climate Indymedia: climateimc.org