Flags of Belonging: How Artists Are Reimagining English Identity

21 September 2025

Manchester artists take pride in their reclaimed St George’s flag. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

In Manchester artists have begun transforming the St George’s flag into a symbol of inclusion rather than division. This creative response comes after a campaign called “raise the colours” in which national flags have been placed on lamp-posts outside homes and painted on roundabouts. Some of those flags, particularly in minority ethnic areas, have become targets for graffiti and even slurs at businesses or places of worship. The new project takes these flashpoints and flips them into public art celebrating diversity and community.

One of the leaders of this endeavour is Cloe Gregson an arts events manager who felt that the presence of these flags had begun to feel exclusionary. She launched a call inviting artists and residents to redesign St George’s flags in settings across Manchester. The goal is twofold: to reclaim what she perceives to be a national symbol misused by those with exclusionary or hard-right intent and to reimagine the flag as a signal everyone is welcome. Gregson says she often drove around and no longer recognised the city she grew up in because of what she saw as a change in atmosphere. She reached out to a group of women event promoters in Manchester and they spread the idea through their professional and social networks.

The project’s name is Everyone Welcome. It quickly gained traction via fundraising platforms and listings sites. More than a hundred people and dozens of venues in Greater Manchester volunteered to take part. Artists will display artwork in public spaces and indoor venues later this month. Flags bearing messages of solidarity will fly next to ones from other countries regional or rainbow flags. In York campaigners have already begun hanging international flags in areas where St George’s flags were erected. They distribute bunting to local businesses and aim to create a cityscape that says we are hosting the world.

Some of the art reflects individual stories. Freya Wysocki an artist described her own flag design as “a symbol of community”. It features imagery of people moving across borders hands reaching outward in welcome. Another artist Edward Meziani created a design called “Built on immigration / Birds on Migration”. He was inspired by the movement of birds settling in new places and the way different cultures have shaped England’s landscape. Both say art is a way to reassert belonging in a moment when for some England feels unwelcoming.

Voices from minority communities say the wave of national flags alone has shifted their sense of belonging. Some say not the flag itself but the environment around it has become hostile. The art projects aim to change that narrative. Rather than seeing the England flag as something only for one community they want every person to see it as part of their story too. They want to show that Englishness can mean openness, generosity, plurality.

In Pontllanfraith in south Wales for instance a bridge has been decorated with flags from a variety of countries reaching far beyond Europe. This is one of many examples where public space is being reshaped to reflect the diversity of its inhabitants. It is art used not only to protest but to reconstruct how identity can be displayed in cityscapes. Flags no longer simply mark territory. They become statements of welcome.

The movement comes at a moment when symbols of nationhood are being contested in many countries. The St George’s flag has long carried different meanings for different people. For some it has always been national pride. For others it has meant exclusion or aggression. What this project shows is that symbols are not fixed. They can be reclaimed and redefined. What matters is who claims them and how. Manchester and York and other towns are showing the flag of England is not speech that belongs only to one side. It is speech that can belong to all sides.

Artists say they hope the story spreads. They want flags to carry messages of love and solidarity not fear or division. They want the sight of a St George’s flag to trigger thoughts of community not conflict. For them what counts is not whether every design is identical but that every design is offered in welcome.

This is about more than art. It is about who gets to define what symbols mean and how identity is allowed to be expressed in the public realm. It is about pulling back from places where someone might feel they do not belong. It is about taking symbols that have been used to divide and using them to heal. This is how flags become stories of everyone.