Shell Ditched As Sponsor Of Top Wildlife Competition

Shell’s two year tenure as sponsor of the London’s Natural History Museum’s “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” exhibition has come to an end.
A determined, creative two year national campaign, coordinated in part by the direct action group Rising Tide and its Art Not Oil offshoot, helped to force the Museum to ditch Shell.
Rising Tide has been pressurising the Museum and partner BBC Wildlife magazine to acknowledge that one of the world’s largest oil companies is not a good sponsor for an exhibition that has become a powerful testament to the beauty, diversity and fragility of the natural world.
London Rising Tide’s Chris Hyde said: ‘We are delighted that the Natural History Museum has seen sense and bid farewell to Shell in what must rank as the most absurd and appalling sponsorship deal ever seen. Now it’s time for the Museum to turn down cash from climate-destroying companies like BP, BA and Shell, and for cultural institutions across London and the UK to do the same.’
‘The oil industry is destroying our future, as well as the habitats and lives of countless living beings right now throughout the world. For that reason, and because this victory has shown what climatically conscious grassroots art can achieve, we will be keeping up the pressure with our Art Not Oil campaign.’

Its 2008 online gallery is now open for submissions here.