Hero Exchange

A Global Collaboration

The Hero Exchange is a project that connects students around the world in a creative conversation about who inspires us. Students from different cultures draw portraits of people and things that inspire them, and we show them together in a collective exhibit, hoping to connect cultures, learn from each other, and start conversations.

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View Our Collections

View our past collections to learn more about our participating students and their artwork.

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Global Greats Collection

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Local Heros Collection

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Animal Project Collection

See More Collections

Participating Schools & Organizations

The Hero Exchange is an art project and scholarship fund powered by young people and supported by an international community of schools, social organizations, and corporate partners who believe in the power of empathy to improve our world. To learn more and get involved, click below.

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Siddhartha School

Stok, Ladakh, India

Minnequa Elementary School

Pueblo City, Colorado, USA

The Bush School

Seattle, Washington, USA

North Yarmouth Academy

Yarmouth, Maine, USA

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Upcoming exhibition

All Your Art Is on Its Way to the Himalayas!

That’s right. We are superexcited to share that the Local Hero portraits will go on display in November in Ladakh, India, at the Ladakh Arts And Media Organization (LAMO) Community Gallery.

Stay Tuned for Details:
We will record opening night and post the video here.

Call for Entries

Appreciating the Animal Beings

Who inspires you? We are an international group of young people sharing our portraits of heroism. We are currently accepting entries for our 2019 Exhibition Theme: Animal Heroes!

Get the Details

Frequently Asked Questions

Can my school or organization join the project?

Yes. Any public, private or homeschool community is welcome to participate in the Heroes Elevate Empathy Exhibition.
How can my school or family join the project?

To join, please email us responses to these questions with a brief letter of introduction.

1. Tell us about your community. Are you a public, private, parochial or homeschooling community? Where are you located? Any details you can provide in the way of a short statement are appreciated and helpful as we develop public relations materials in lead up to the exhibition.

2. How many children will participate? Which grades?

3. Taking your calendar into consideration, what time frame works with your schedule? Be as specific as possible, providing dates and indicating the duration.

4. Does your school need assistance in buying supplies for the final portraits? We have art supplies available for schools in need.
Are there specifications for the art?

Yes. While the way you approach the project is up to you, we do have detailed specifications for the final artwork and accompanying essays. This is because we want to be sure that all communities, regardless of their social, cultural, or economic situation, get the same opportunity to create art from fine materials in the same medium of expression. The second reason is technical; having all finished art be the same size and use the same materials streamlines our framing and technical reproduction process. All art materials specified can be provided free of cost to schools that request them.

Final Portrait Specifications: 11 inches x 17 inches in dimension on smooth Bristol paper.

Painted in Gouache using the colors Primary Yellow, Deep Yellow, Spectrum Red, Primary Red, Ultramarine, Primary Blue, Forest Green, Yellow Ochre, Ivory Black and Zinc White. Markers to ink illustrations are okay, but we can not accept pencil or crayon coloring. Essay Specifications:

Please keep accompanying essays to a maximum of 200 words and submit them in Microsoft Word format.
What are the deadlines to participate?

2020 submissions are closed, but send us an email if you’d like us to contact you about our 2021 program.

How can I integrate the Heroes Exchange into my curriculum?

The beauty of this opportunity is that the project is scalable to your school’s curriculum requirements and calendar.

For example, one school is arranging to take on the topic of heroes as a ‘theme-ester,’ so they can approach the question ‘Who are our heroes?’ across disciplines and core subject areas. By building time into their social studies, history, science, and language arts classes students can explore they choose will to portray in the Heroes Elevate Empathy Exhibition.

We recognize that other schools may have less flexibility. They can choose to work in a more concentrated way. For instance, a school could choose to take a week, after exams for example, to focus on the question in an after-school club or free period. That’s completely okay. The details are yours to design in a manner that makes sense for your school. We will not be providing curriculum stipulations or classroom exercises. We believe in you and your team to use the topic and time spent on art creation in a way that will be meaningful to the children you serve.
What is the process of creating portraits and essays?

We encourage students to do a number of sketches and iterations of their heroes before creating their final portraits, as this can be vital to the discovery process. Sketches and iterations can be in any medium or any size desired and will not be collected for display.

We also ask you to reflect in a 200-word essay on why you chose your hero. There is no cost incurred by the school for participating in a Heroes Elevate Empathy Exhibition.
Will I get the artwork back?

No, your art is your gift to this collaborative project and will travel the world in future shows and publications. We will credit all artists in published materials, and you can keep track of where your work is going by following show dates on this site.

We will reproduce all artwork displayed on a deck of high-quality trading cards (think baseball card size). Each participant will get a deck of their own as a keepsake for participating in the project. The accompanying biography of each hero portrait will be featured on the back of each card. By keeping a unified color palette of super saturated water based gauche colors, we are confident that within the diversity of styles there will be a strong harmony by color, size, and theme.

Do you have any specific questions? Please feel free to

Siddhartha School Partnership

A Global Collaboration

View Our Collections

Global Greats Collection

Local Heros Collection

Animal Project Collection

Participating Schools & Organizations

Siddhartha School

Minnequa Elementary School

The Bush School

North Yarmouth Academy

All Your Art Is on Its Way to the Himalayas!

Appreciating the Animal Beings

Frequently Asked Questions

Can my school or organization join the project?

How can my school or family join the project?

Are there specifications for the art?

What are the deadlines to participate?

How can I integrate the Heroes Exchange into my curriculum?

What is the process of creating portraits and essays?

Will I get the artwork back?

Get in Touch!