The Adaire Alexander School is putting the finishing touches on a mural they hope to unveil on April 20th.

The student council decided a new mural should be placed over the previous painting that took up a section of a wall on the second floor of the school. The mural is aimed at diversity and hopes to cut down on some of the problems children face in those regards.

“It will have a positive impact on the students’ understanding of acceptance, adversity and the respect of one another,” said Jeanette Oddo, the school’s principal.

To create the piece of art, students from sixth to eighth grade teamed up with Kim Creighton, the director of the Portside Arts Center and Dr. Christina Long, the backbone of the project and a teacher at Adaire. A number of other artists and assistants have been there to give their input as well.

“I think this is a great idea. The kids are having fun and it’ll be great for them to see their own work and be able to remember it,” said Mema Vaklinova, an artist assistant from the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

The extracurricular program, which had all its supplies donated by the Portside Arts Center and the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, is set to last 12 weeks with the students meeting twice a week after school.

Even at such a young age, the students were able to understand how much of an influence a mural like this could have on the school.

“I like how we can express our ideas and can possibly change our school a little,” said Sean Ritzheimer, an eighth grader. “We do have some bullying and maybe this will help that.”

Another student, Toni Hartley, a 7th grader, also expressed her thoughts on how this will affect students. “It’s all about diversity. Maybe it will help people change their ways.”

With budget cuts hindering students’ ability to open up through art and music during school hours, programs like these are growing in Philadelphia.

“It’s a shock to them to even be asked to do art because it is so far removed from most of their lives,” said Long.

Portside Arts Center also holds an arts and crafts program for the children in younger grades at Adaire. Oddo believes these are large reasons as to why their student school rating is so high.

“We went from a three to a one on the rating scale,” said Oddo. “Programs like this give kids the incentive to perform and that makes this a better school.”

Pennsylvania State Representative John Taylor recognized the success Portside Arts Center has had in schools and will be assisting them in their campaigns in the 2012-2013 school year.

Since the theme of the mural is diversity, Oddo and Creighton hope to tie in the unveiling with a school-wide multicultural day.

“The students will be able to show their parents and their fellow classmates how hard they worked on this,” said Creighton. “They have a reason to be proud.”

Watch out for more information in the near future about the date and time of the unveiling at the Adaire Alexander School.