FLY THE FLAG – ELEVATED

In 2020, Fly The Flag focused on Article 25 in a year marked by health concerns and economic deprivation. Many people in the UK were deeply affected as the pandemic highlighted and exacerbated the plight of those unable to access their human right to food, shelter, healthcare, and social protections.

Fly The Flag’s cohort of art organisations and human rights charities commissioned over 30 poets to respond to Article 25, see here. Through these poems we came together to remember the importance of sharing, knowing and protecting our human rights.

This year, Fly The Flag highlights Article 19 – the right to freedom of opinion and expression – in an ambitous new project created by choreographer Oona Doherty alongside four associate artists. This large-scale engagement programme is produced by Fuel in partnership with Eden Court Highlands, The MAC, Sadler’s Wells and Wales Millennium Centre, and in association with Belfast International Arts Festival. It will culminate with the release of a new film created by young people across the four nations of the UK, broadcast by Sky Arts on 10 December, Human Rights Day.

Oona Doherty said: “This year’s Fly the Flag project will expand my choreography and the sugar army with crews all over the UK from all different backgrounds. We will learn a dance designed to ignite confidence and will. From our crews we will develop our own original material in response to freedom of expression. Sky Arts will film this UK wide army of young people. Dancing, shouting and expressing all that to them is important and what needs to change. This is the future. The good, the bad and the ugly truth of it. And we’re dancing about it.”

Watch this space between now and December as we get ready to share more about this year’s programme with you.

Instagram / Twitter @we_flytheflag

Image credit – Charlie Di Placido & Rhys Warren