Commissioned to mark Black History Month and aligning with this year’s theme of Honouring Our Communities, the piece will be stationed at the bottom of Sir Howard Bernstein Way for the remainder of the month.
It shows portraits of City players, staff and fans on Subbuteo-style stands all connected by a scarf that carries the words of Lemn Sissay’s 2025 poem ‘The Stadium Speaks’.
Find out more about our participants
And Hopkins says he hopes his work represents the community and common cause football provides for so many people of all backgrounds when they come to the Etihad Stadium.
“It’s a mini crowd of people coming together to have this shared sense of belonging,” he said of We Stand Together.
“Football has that strong sense of community and brings people together all over the world.
“You can be anywhere in the world and see the shirt of your team and automatically you share something with that person. It breaks down barriers, communicate and meet new people.
“I wanted to bring a lot of that feeling of community with this piece. Doing that, you have to bring people back into it. The main thing about football is people at the end of the day.
“The line work helps people see themselves and a scarf is one of those things in football that gives you that sense of pride. I wanted to have that thread connecting all these figures.”
As well as the Sissay poem and the wider theme of this year’s Black History Month, Hopkins used celebrated LS Lowry painting Going to the Match as a source too.
Created in 1953, it shows people meeting outside Bolton’s Burnden Park ahead of kick-off.
Hopkins says that painting demonstrates all the power of what football can provide to a community.
“Going to the Match is one of those iconic paintings where once you strip things back to the bare essentials, people recognise themselves within it,” he said.
“The line work I’ve used is a little nod back to Lowry’s work and it has all those little rituals of families and friends going together or meeting people you only ever see at the match.
“It sums up the weather you expect in English football and hopefully that inspiration comes through within this piece.
With the installation remaining in place until the end of Black History Month, there will be plenty of opportunities for thousands of City fans to take in the work around our upcoming home games.
Hopkins says he hopes it can help people reflect on what football and shared fandom brings to their life.
“I hope that when people see this piece, it can trigger them different stories and they can see themselves within it,” he stated.
“It’s all about connective nature and we all stand together. I want people to look at the piece and carry memories, like Going to the Match does for people who think on their own experiences when they see it.”
