Minnesota picks 24-year-old artist’s design for new state flag

The state of Minnesota has picked a brand new flag, submitted by 24-year-old, Luverne-based artist Andrew Prekker for a public competitors that noticed lots of of Minnesotans attempt their palms at vexillology. Questions concerning the colonial imagery of the state’s prior flag, initially unveiled in 1893, had prompted the seek for a brand new design.

Prekker, following the information that his design had been chosen, stated in an announcement that it’s his “best hope that this new flag can lastly signify our state and all its individuals correctly. That each Minnesotan of each background—together with the Indigenous communities and tribal nations who’ve been traditionally excluded—can search for at our flag with satisfaction and honour, and see themselves inside it.”

Whereas the ultimate flag has been altered barely from Prekker’s preliminary design, it retains the sunshine blue panel symbolising the state’s lakes, notched navy blue panel representing the shoreline of Lake Superior and eight-pointed northern star.

“Minnesotans have a lot to be happy with from the great thing about our land, to our rivers and lakes, to our recognition because the North Star State—all of that are mirrored on this flag,” Steve Simon, Minnesota’s secretary of state and a member of the State Emblem Redesign Fee that picked Prekker’s design, stated in an announcement. “I hope Minnesotans will discover commonality on this flag and unite round it for generations to return.”

Some Minnesotans have fought the adoption of an summary, fashionable flag, citing considerations of misplaced heritage and erasure of farmers from the central design. The picture on the centre of the 1893 design—depicting a pioneer with a rifle, a farmer and a Native American on horseback with a spear—has been routinely accused of glorifying the state’s position in westward growth and the coverage of “Manifest Future”, a doctrine that justified the genocide and erasure of Indigenous populations within the American West. One Minnesota state consultant, Mike Freiburg, described the previous flag as a “cluttered genocidal mess”.

Along with the substitute of the state flag, the State Emblem Redesign Fee additionally chosen a substitute for the state’s seal, choosing a equally organised image that replaces the pioneer, farmer and Native American with a single loon, the state chicken.

Previous to the announcement of the brand new flag, Minnesotans participated in common debates concerning the lots of of proposed designs, growing fierce attachments to favorite prposals. Cult hits have been as various as a photograph of a Minnesotan’s canine in a area, drawings of laser-eyed loons and a slew of low-effort and avant-garde photos. Whereas on-line conversations have lamented the passing-over of so many excellent efforts of regional artistry, the brand new flag has been positively acquired by most.