Art Not Oil

As well as dealing with diary orders from with any luck very pleased punters, we managed to send a clutch of freebies out to the bosses of London's sponsored institutions just before the Copenhagen climate summit.

Here's the letter that went with each one:

6.12.09

Dear -------,

Please find enclosed a copy of the Art Not Oil 2010 diary. I hope it’s a celebration of art’s extraordinary ability to provide an emotional context to where we find ourselves today politically, socially and ecologically.

On the eve of the Copenhagen climate summit, which seems likely to disappoint those of us hoping for a magical solution to the crisis, this diary is also sent to you as a sort of plea to use your extraordinary power to influence the public debate on this issue, and to hasten our move away from fossil fuelled madness by refusing to accept sponsorship from companies whose main business is in such fuels.

Time is too short to be allowing companies that are digging ever deeper to exploit ever dirtier forms of energy (such as oil tar sands) a platform to mislead the public as to their core business.

Thanks for reading, and all good wishes for 2010,

Mark Brown, (co-ordinator, Art Not Oil)

 ********************

As of 15.1.2010, we've received replies from...none of them. This is perhaps unexpected, but we can only hope that at least a few of them will have been deeply touched by such an unsolicited gift, and that they will afford their diary pride of place on their well-apportioned desks.

 
Here's the lucky list:

Neil Constable, Michael Attenborough, Almeida Theatre

Neil MacGregor, The British Museum

Dr Nicholas Penny, The National Gallery

Nick Starr, Nicholas Hytner: National Theatre

Kevin Fewster, National Maritime Museum,

Michael Dixon, Natural History Museum

Sandy Nairne, NPG

Tony Hall, Royal Opera House

Prof Chris Rapley, Science Museum

Julia Peyton-Jones & Hans Ulrich Obrist,  Co-Directors, Serpentine Gallery

Alan Bishop, (former chairman of Saatchi and Saachi International and Chief Executive of the Central Office of Information), Chief Executive, South Bank Centre
Jude Kelly, Artistic Director.Southbank Centre

Sir Nicholas Serota, Tate Galleries;
Penelope Curtis, Director, Tate Britain (sent in January, so we'll need more time to discover if she'll respond.)