By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – An anti-violence art project, long housed at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, has been kicked out and left in limbo.

The murder of five-year-old Marcus Yates – caught in the cross fire of a gunfight in a corner store – shocked Philadelphia in 1988 and launched the project “Lost Dreams on Canvas”. The project featured portraits of innocent victims of violent crime, commissioned in hopes of ending it.

Yates’ mother, Rochelle, remembers the comfort she found in the memorial to her son.

“Oh my goodness, it meant everything.”

That’s why Rochelle is upset that the Academy has ended its support for the program. Program Co-Founder

says he rescued the exhibit when the Academy kicked it out and is looking for a new home for it.

“We really want this out in the public to be seen, daily.”

Bates says he takes it around to schools but often it languishes in storage.

The Academy did not respond to requests for comment.