Art galleries are complicit in trashing our planet – but they don’t have to be

There is no art on a dead planet. As I write, a number of climate-protectors from Just Stop Oil are on remand in a Manchester police cell for the high crime of gluing themselves to the frame of a painting in Manchester Art Gallery on Friday.

Their protest and similar protests that took place in Glasgow and London have a simple demand. They are asking that UK’s art galleries join the call on governments to stop investments by the banks and oil corporations in new oil, coal and gas fields, due to the climate crisis.

No damage was done to any of the paintings targeted by these young people.

These protests echo the suffragette Mary Richardson, who 108 years ago, shocked the world when she walked into the National Gallery and slashed Velazquez’s Rokeby Venus, in protest over the government’s treatment of the suffragettes, and the betrayal of a promise by the Liberal prime minister Herbert Asquith to pass legislation giving some women the vote.

Richardson served 18 months of hard labour for her action. She had already been subjected, following previous arrests, to repeated forced feeding in jail and temporary release under the punitive Cat & Mouse Act that the government had introduced to crack down on the Suffragette’s campaign of arson, window breaking and disruptive protests.

One of the Manchester Just Stop Oil arrestees, 21-year-old Physics graduate Paul Bell, said: “The youth of the world have literally nothing to lose any more: we are a generation sacrificed. There are millions in fuel and food poverty, our wildlife and landscapes are devastated and we face famine and war. Our government is accelerating the chaos by allowing new fossil fuel infrastructure. We will not stand by and let this creeping evil continue.”

He is correct on all counts.

Since the Ukraine invasion, the Johnson government has embarked on a Daily Mail-driven frenzy of climate destruction, demanding the acceleration of new oil, coal and gas fields, expansion of aviation and increased exports of high-carbon dairy, sheep and farmed salmon, while trashing the budget for large landscape restoration.

By targeting our revered art galleries, these young people are rightly forcing us to think about actual existential priorities.

With our governments, media oligarchs, bankers and oil barons burning our planet for short-term profit, would the destruction of precious artworks such as the Mona Lisa be a price worth paying if it helped save the lives of future billions?

The idea of losing our precious artistic heritage to destruction by climate protectors would horrify me. But having our global artistic heritage destroyed by the unfolding climate catastrophe appears not to bother Johnson or the leaders of big banks, oil companies or some media organisations.

Imagine the outrage if Vladimir Putin fired a barrage of thermobaric bombs at Venice in revenge for the European Union supporting Ukraine? That is what the fossil fuel expansionists are doing as they throw ever more carbon into the atmosphere.

So what should art galleries be doing?

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First, back the Just Stop Oil call for an immediate government ban on all new fossil fuel investments.

Second, reflect the devastating threat to society by the climate crisis, in the exhibitions they host and the artists they promote.

Third, impose an immediate ban on gallery and exhibition sponsorship by fossil-fuelled corporations. BP, Equinor, Shell, Adani etc have no place in our temples of art.

Fourth, commit to having zero carbon premises by 2030 at the latest. Such investment absolutely must take priority over gallery refurbishments or extensions.

Finally, they must ensure their finances are fossil-free. It is intolerable that art galleries should be banking with companies that are among the worst funders of fossil fuel expansion.

It’s time for the art world to stand up and be counted. These brave young people deserve nothing less.