The Turner Prize isn’t the only thing putting the art world in a spin this week, oh no; there’s also the matter of whether or not Team Tate will opt to extend their 21-year partnership with sponsors BP. Having first struck a deal with Tate Britain in 1990, the oil giant today spends over £1m each year on the Tate network of art spaces, and a number of other galleries, museums and arts institutions across the UK.

It seems, though, in this increasingly eco-aware age, and no doubt with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico still very in much in everyone’s minds, that a significant portion of the Tate’s members and visitors would rather do without BP’s help, thank you very much, after 8000 of them signed an open letter urging Tate Trustees against renewing the sponsorship deal.

There has also been dissent amongst the top Tate ranks, with trustee Patrick Brill criticising BP’s environmental record and branding the company a “disgrace”. Tate Director Nicholas Serota, presumably torn between wider public opinion and a need for funds, has acknowledged that the Trustees’ decision will be “very difficult”. Well he’s got that right, at least.

With a decision due from the Tate board any day now, Chris Sands of Liberate Tate, one of a number of organisations behind the aforementioned petition, has this to say: “Tate can no longer respond by simply stating that BP is an important sponsor of the arts. Tate’s visiting public and its own members are saying in large numbers that maintaining a relationship with an oil company like BP is harming both the reputation of Tate and the experience of enjoying great art in a public gallery”.

Having released their first post-hiatus album, ‘In The Grace Of Your Love’, earlier this year, The Rapture will be stopping by for a two-date UK jaunt next May. But wait, there’s more, because the band are also set to play an exclusive interactive London show on 12 Dec.

Presented by Dell, Intel and Vice Magazine’s joint live venture, Noisey, as part of their Special Engagement Concert Series, fans will get the chance to choose the band’s encore track, design merchandise for their new single ‘Sail Away’, and even join them on stage. The entire set will be streamed live on the Noisey website. Details on how to secure entry to that show, which goes off at Rowan’s Bowling Alley in Finsbury Park, can be found here.

Say The Rapture, in sweet and perfect unison: “Thanks to Noisey, we feel quite lucky to engage in far reaching ways to fans all over the world. This sounds like it should be a damn good concert”.

Meanwhile, here are the regular old 2012 dates:

1 May: Oxford, Academy
2 May: London, Shepherd’s Bush Empire