As Pride Month and Refugee Week come together this June, VONNE Member, Rainbow Home is proud to celebrate the resilience, creativity and courage of LGBTQ+ people seeking sanctuary in the North East. In this blog, Chief Executive, Jill Hardie explains how they're working with trusted partners to deliver an art exhibition to express identity and belonging whilst enriching local culture and empowering activism.
Rainbow Home are a specialist VCSE provider working with people who have fled persecution based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity; we work at the intersection of sexuality, gender identity, and asylum.
As well as being Pride month, this week is Refugee Week and we acknowledge the unique challenges faced daily by LGBTQ+ people seeking sanctuary. In collaboration with trusted partners, Rainbow Home is proud to present an installation at Hatton Gallery featuring refugee artists. The theme this year is Courage. At the heart of our exhibition are banners created for Newcastle Pride Fringe 2026, led by Curious Arts. Banners are enduring tools of non‑violent resistance and visual activism: they communicate messages clearly, build solidarity, shape public perception, and document social struggles. Throughout both LGBTQ+ history and the North East’s proud tradition of community organising, banners express identity, belonging, and collective defiance. They connect today’s struggles for safety and dignity with generations of activism across our region. This exhibition helps preserve the voices and creativity of LGBTQ+ people seeking sanctuary, ensuring their stories become part of the North East’s cultural memory. We hope to strengthen community identity, challenge public perceptions, and inspire greater understanding and solidarity.
Alongside the banners, the exhibition includes digital artworks and portraits created in collaboration with Digital Voice for Communities. The exhibition also features oral histories: powerful first-person accounts from people who have sought sanctuary due to their sexuality and/or gender identity supported by Rainbow Home. These stories offer an intimate insight into life in the North East — the barriers faced, the hope found, and the importance of community. The oral histories will be available to listen to on our website after the exhibition: https://rainbowhome.org.uk/
By providing tools enabling people to express themselves and be seen, the work empowers future activism, enriches local culture, and builds a more inclusive region where everyone can belong.