Protestors from the Just Stop Oil group have glued themselves to artwork in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, demanding the government end new oil and gas developments.
Three supporters of the group have spray-painted messages around the gallery, while two have glued themselves to the frame of a 19th century painting.
Painted by Horatio McCulloch, the work is called ‘My Heart’s in the Highlands’.
In a statement Just Stop Oil called for the government to “end new oil and gas” and for art institutions to join them in “civil resistance.”
BREAKING
Three young supporters of Just Stop Oil have sprayed paint around the @KelvingroveArt Gallery and Museum in Glasgow. Two have glued themselves to the frame of a painting by Horatio McCulloch.
Read more about it here: https://t.co/HwgqTdvPWw— JustStopOil (@JustStop_Oil) June 29, 2022
Emma Brown, 30, a graduate from Glasgow School of Art said she was taking action in part because “art institutions are failing us.”
“They seem to think it’s enough to put on an exhibition about climate change rather than challenge the government’s genocidal plans to allow new oil and gas. This is unacceptable, it’s not enough to be informed as citizens, we need to be active.
“If you are more angry about the action than about mothers dying of heat stroke in India leaving orphaned babies crying for breastmilk, or about the millions of families in the UK struggling to buy food because of fossil fuel profiteering by the rich then you need to get your priorities straight. What is more priceless? This piece of art or your children’s life?”
“There can be no new fossil fuel projects, it’s insanity and greed.”
Hannah Torrance Bright, 20, a current student at the school said that she was “outraged” and felt she had “no choice” but to resist what she described as the government’s “genocidal plans.”
A spokesperson for Glasgow Life, the operator of the gallery, said it had closed early due to the protesters, and that conservation teams would work with the police to ascertain the extent of any damage.
Earlier this month activists from the group covered a UK government building in paint, claiming it has “blood on its hands” after approving the Jackdaw gas field.
The action in Glasgow was launched in the wake of a damning report from the Climate Change Committee (CCC) which warned that current government plans to tackle global warming will not deliver on legal targets to cut emissions in the coming decades.
The CCC said it found “major failures in delivery programmes towards the achievement of the UK’s climate goals”, and that more should be done to improve energy efficiency.
Committee chairman Lord Deben added: “In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, the country is crying out to end its dependence on expensive fossil fuels.
“I welcome the Government’s restated commitment to net zero, but holes must be plugged in its strategy urgently.”
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