BP

At BP, we’re dedicated to fuelling the success of London 2012.

We’re supporting UK athletes like William Sharman and we’re building on our 30 year support of the arts by helping to involve millions of people in the Cultural Olympiad and its finale, the London 2012 Festival.

We’ve already seen millions of people mark the countdown to the Games with us at London 2012 Open Weekend. We’ve celebrated the success of the Tate Movie Project, which involved over 34,000 UK children and broke a Guinness World Record in the process. We’ve watched BP Portrait Award: Next Generation open the eyes of young artists of the future, some who had never been to the National Portrait Gallery before. And we’re delighted to have been part of making this all happen as Premier Partner of the four-year Cultural Olympiad.

The London 2012 Festival is set to be an amazing and truly world-class finale.

In collaboration with our longstanding arts partners, we’re helping to bring the following projects to the Festival:

The Olympic Journey: The Story of the Games
28 July - 12August 2012
BP and the Royal Opera House have joined forces with The Olympic Museum, to create this free and unique exhibition telling the Olympic story through the endeavours of ancient and modern Olympians.

The World Shakespeare Festival
April – November 2012
As Founding Presenting Partner of the World Shakespeare Festival, BP is supporting the Royal Shakespeare Company’s What Country Friends Is This?, three plays – The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night and The Tempest – exploring migration, exile, shipwreck and the discovery of brave new worlds. Led by RSC Associate Director, David Farr, this unique trilogy will play in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon before moving to the Roundhouse in London.

What Country Friends Is This? also includes a major community project that will see members of the RSC’s creative team working with the local community to create a performance of Pericles that will be staged at The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford as part of Open Stages, a ground-breaking initiative which brings amateur and professional actors closer together.

BP is also supporting the London season of Julius Caesar, directed by RSC Chief Associate Director, Gregory Doran, and Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Iqbal Khan, and the RSC’s digital project myShakespeare, whereby people from around the world are invited to join a global conversation about Shakespeare online..

Shakespeare: staging the world - The BP Exhibition
19 July - 25 November 2012

Shakespeare: Staging the World – The BP Exhibition, is presented by the British Museum in collaboration with the RSC, which will revisit William Shakespeare’s stories and tell them anew to London in 2012.

BP Portrait Award: Next Generation
BP Portrait Award: Next Generation is a dynamic project led by the National Portrait Gallery, inspiring 14–19-year-olds by opening up opportunities to meet and gain insights from past BP Portrait Award artists.

The Tate Movie Project: The Itch of the Golden Nit
The Tate Movie Project presents The Itch of the Golden Nit - an animated adventure drawn and dreamt up by children from across the UK. Thousands of drawings, sound effects and story ideas make up the action-packed, half hour animation.
The Tate Movie Project is funded by Legacy Trust UK and BP, with additional support and resources from the BBC, the film has been brought together by Tate and Aardman Animations.