Dear Mr Volynchook

Thank you for your request for information about the sponsorship the National Portrait Gallery receives from BP. Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act we are required to erspond within twenty working days and you should therefore receive our reply by the 20th November.

Yours sincerely

Robin Francis

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Request for Information under the Freedom of Information Act

Dear John Volynchook,

I am writing in response to the request you made under the Freedom of
Information Act in your email of 22 October 2008 for the following
information:

1. I would like to know the total amount of annual sponsorship money
from BP given to the National Portrait Gallery; please state the
percentage of total corporate sponsorship and the percentage of total
running costs that this figure represents. I would be grateful if you
could provide these figures for each of the past five years.

BP has provided sponsorship of £1.25m over a period of five years with
additional support for events and marketing. This accounts for between 1/3
and 40 % of corporate sponsorship of exhibitions. For information on the
sponsorship as a percentage of total running costs please refer to the
financial statement in our Annual Review (which is on the website).

2. Please provide any information or reports regarding environmental,
`reputational' or similar audits conducted by the gallery relating to BP's
sponsorship.

The Gallery regularly conducts visitor research evaluations which show
sampled opinions of this exhibition which enjoy consistently high
attendances and high levels of repeat visits. A statement on the Gallery's
position with regards to BP's sponsorship is below. But this is hardly
ever applied as we have negligible visitor comments or press enquiries
concerning any issues that might hold the Gallery in negative light as a
result of this sponsorship. These documents would have helped Trustees
inform their decision to renew the contract given that they sufficiently
demonstrate low reputational risk to the Gallery in relation to the
benefits to the organisation and its visitors.

3. I would also like to know when the contract or agreement for
sponsorship with BP is scheduled for renewal.

The attached press release announced the extension of sponsorship for five
years until 2011. We would begin discussing the renewal process in 2010.

4. Please can you confirm (with amounts) sponsorship funding to the
gallery from any other oil, coal mining, petrochemical or pharmaceutical
companies.

We do not currently have sponsorship from any of these listed other than
BP although we are planning to have the support of Access Industries for
the Portrait Gala in March 2009.

Under the terms of the Act, I am required to inform you of our appeals
procedure in case you are not satisfied with the above response. A copy
of our public leaflet on Freedom of Information, which advises you how to
appeal to the Gallery and of your right to appeal to the Information
Commissioner, can be found on the Gallery website at:
[1]http://www.npg.org.uk/live/freedominfo.asp

Kindest regards

Neil Evans

Senior Press Officer

National Portrait Gallery, London

Statement regarding the Gallery and BP sponsorship

"The National Portrait Gallery, while principally supported by
grant-in-aid from government, is pleased to work with a wide range of
companies in support of its exhibitions and displays. The sponsorship of
the annual Portrait Award by BP and their support directly encourages the
work of artists and helps gain wider recognition for them."

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References

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Dear Mr Volynchook

The sponsorship negotiations with Access Industries are completed and the sponsorship runs until the Portrait Gala takes place at the beginning of March 2009.

With all best wishes

Neil

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My pleasure

Neil

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