Student art exhibit

The news about Latino and black student relations in Los Angeles schools is often troubling, such as the melee earlier this year involving 600 students at Locke High School that was quelled by police clad in riot gear and wielding billy clubs.

But today,  about 100 students from 10 Los Angeles schools are coming together for the second annual "Colors for Unity" art exhibition. The theme is "no color lines."

"Our goal is to use art as a tool that will allow students a form of expression to help break the race barrier," said Mike Piscal, founder and CEO of Inner City Education Foundations Public Schools, in a press release. "Our hope is that this experience will provide students with a better understanding of each other's cultures and will bring unity by focusing on their common strengths."

The exhibition at the Norm Maxwell Gallery will feature more than 100 pieces of original artwork, as well as the students painting large canvases together at the opening day reception. The exhibition runs from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. today, and 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday.

Participating schools include eight charter schools run by the Inner City Education Foundation -- View Park Preparatory High, View Park Preparatory Middle, Lou Dantzler High, Lou Dantzler Middle, Frederick Douglass Academy High, Frederick Douglass Academy Middle, Thurgood Marshall High and Thurgood Marshall Middle -- as well as two traditional LAUSD high schools -- Garfield and Manuel Arts.

-- Seema Mehta