The 'black box' of cultural sponsorship: an investigation into the impact and meaning of corporate sponsorship by Shell at science museum NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam

By letting Shell contribute to exhibitions in the Dutch NEMO museum, an apparently neutral platform was created where Shell could legitimize its business story. (Student thesis, Hannah van der Plaat, June 2020, in Dutch)

Abstract

Science museum NEMO in Amsterdam has a long history of cultural sponsorship. Companies have been involved in setting up exhibitions at the museum since its foundation. A major sponsor is Shell. Between 1931 and 2005, Shell contributed to several exhibitions. In this thesis, I analyse which discourse was transmitted in the exhibitions sponsored by Shell. By contrasting the exhibitions with the historical context of exhibitions, the history of the museum and the history of Shell, the discourse emerges. This research shows that there is a similarity between the subjects of Shell-sponsored exhibitions and Shell's business at a particular time. With this, Shell's sponsorship of the science museum can be seen as a way to gain cultural legitimacy for innovations and investments made by the company. The museum thus provides a basis for Shell to bring out and normalise its image of society, energy and the importance of oil to society. The findings of this study thus complement the little literature on cultural sponsorship. In the studies that have been done, academics often argue that sponsorship is a way of improving a company's image. Here, they refer to symbolic capital that a museum gives to a company. However, this research shows that sponsorship goes beyond symbolic capital alone. Indeed, having Shell contribute to exhibitions at the museum created a seemingly neutral platform where Shell could legitimise its corporate narrative.