of arts sponsorship is in focus today as authors request the Edinburgh Festival to refuse to take money from a company investing in the West Bank Settlements. When and if arts organisations decide to do without funds in this way it is incumbent upon them to get all the facts and hear all the sides. I am reminded at how artists demanded Tate stop taking money from BP but the Tate exists because of the slave plantations making sugar and none of the artists said they were giving up their cars.
The woman I heard speaking said the Israelis were involved in ethnic cleansing and genocide. Both legally untrue.
I think if an artist wants to avoid ethically questionable organisations they are free to do so but it is not up to the organisation to pander to any single belief.
#edinburgh
#tate