How would you write your own story? Or even someone else’s? This installation spotlights stories about family, friends, and fictional characters. Artists of all backgrounds have used text—collaged, written, or printed—to characterize their ideas of leaders. Portraits of Lt. Benny White and Elle Woods tell different, yet meaningful, stories about leaders. The people we make heroes reflect the ideals we value in the past, present, or future.

We all hold stories close to our hearts, whether they are our own, from family members, or from characters in movies or books. Each portrait here gives us a short story about a leader in the artist’s life.

—Sophia Shatzky, Brookline High School, junior