Parents expose human cost of Science Museum sponsorships in unofficial tour

In response to the Science Museum’s ongoing partnership with Adani, a coal and weapons conglomerate, volunteers led by Parents for Palestine invited children and their families on an unsanctioned ‘alternative tour’ of the museum.

The tour aimed to explore the:

untold stories revealing the institution’s role in the destruction of life, communities, and land in Palestine and in India.

Adani, sponsor of the Science Museum’s ‘Energy Revolution’ Gallery has a joint weapons-producing venture with Elbit Systems (Adani-Elbit). It produces the Hermes 900 drone which has been used in the genocide of the Palestinian people and continues to be used by Israel in the bombing of towns in southern Lebanon.

Adani is also the world’s largest private developer of coal, and its mining and green energy projects are the cause of displacement and militarisation of indigenous communities in India.

Zhera, an alternative tour guide, said:

This children’s tour challenges the curation and framing of items displayed in the museum in the Adani sponsorship.

For example, we want to bring to light the lost livelihoods and the critically endangered animals like the Great Indian Bustard whose deaths have made way for Adani’s solar parks which are featured in the gallery.

Through this tour, children questioned the stories the museum is telling and critically engaged with what they choose to display and what they leave out; whose stories are centred and whose are erased.

The tour featured a mock-Science Museum brochure with a map and activities for children, who wrote letters to the Science Museum at the end of the tour. One child wrote:

You should stop getting money from Adani who are making weapons to kill people in Palestine.

Praveen, a tour participant commented:

This is the education our kids deserve. The kids were so engaged. I’ve learnt many things myself and I understand much better why we all need to boycott the Science Museum.

Leila, a Parents for Palestine organiser, said:

This tour is not intended as a protest or a disruption; instead it intends to disrupt the misleading story the Museum tells about Adani by painting it as a ‘green’ company.

We are reclaiming a publicly funded space for the education of our children, where the Science Museum is failing to meet that educational need at the expense of its tireless defence of these morally unacceptable sponsors, Adani and BP.

Science Museum losing friends and alienating people

During the tour, a Rolls Royce engine begins as the basis for opening up a conversation on fossil fuels. And at the end it’s narrated as a relic of the 1970’s Rolls Royce workers’ boycott in which UK workers refused to manufacture engines for the Chilean airforce under general Pinochet.

The tour took place in the context of years of protest and an ongoing teacher and parent boycott backed by the National Education Union.

A recent survey undertaken by Prospect union demonstrated the impact of the sponsorships on staff morale. It found that 64% of Science Museum staff disagreed with sponsorship and programming decisions of the Science Museum Group. And it discovered widespread:

ethical concerns with the organisation’s controversial sponsorships which impact staff pride, morale and motivation.

This comes after an investigation revealed the extent of BP’s involvement in shaping the development of the Science Museum Academy. This provides training for STEM teachers, as part of BP’s drive to give children “a BP context for their learning”.

Isobel Tarr, co-director at Culture Unstained, said:

A sold-out unsanctioned tour, led by parents raising concerns about the sponsors of the Science Museum, demonstrates just how much the museum has lost touch with its supporter communities of parents, teachers and educators.

For years, the Science Museum has failed to engage constructively with those facing the destructive and toxic impacts of its sponsors; from indigenous communities displaced by Adani’s coal mining expansion, to those suffering as a result of Israel’s genocide in Palestine.

If the Museum wants to regain the trust and approval of teachers, parents and the diverse communities of London, it must drop Adani and BP, and start constructive engagement to rebuild trust and take the museum in a direction that audiences and staff can take pride in.

Science Museum sponsor BP has come under criticism as one of the major profiteers of the US-Iran war. It racked up profits of over $3.2bn across the first three months of 2026. This was an increase of 132% on the previous year and is pushing up the affordability crisis according to analysts.

Featured image supplied