The Biennale of Sydney board will hold crisis talks after artists threatened to pull out of the festival over its sponsorship by a company involved in offshore detention centres.
In an open letter to event organisers, 28 Australian and international artists have asked the board of one of Australia's biggest art festivals to abandon major sponsor Transfield because of its connection to "human suffering".
Transfield Services provides maintenance, management and security services at detention facilities on Nauru and Manus Island for the Department of Immigration.
Clashes between security forces and asylum seekers on Manus this week left one Iranian asylum seeker dead and injured 77 people.
Transfield's involvement in the Biennale casts a cloud over the event, the artists say, because "participation is an active endorsement".
"We urge you to act in the interests of asylum seekers," says the letter, which was sent on Wednesday.
The artists said while they understood the need for funding, they did not want its source to be associated with "ethically indefensible" practices.
Leading cultural institutions should exercise a greater degree of ethical awareness when governments do not, they said.
A spokeswoman for the Biennale confirmed the board will meet on Thursday night to consider the letter.
"It would be premature to say anything before they meet," she told AAP.
A Transfield spokesman said the matter was for the Biennale and its board to discuss with artists.
Transfield Services is part of Transfield Holdings' privately owned portfolio of businesses.
Biennale chairman Luca Belgiorno-Nettis is an executive director on the advisory board at Transfield Holdings, which is chaired by education reformist David Gonski.
