Artist Tony Shore, hoisted toward the sky on a Genie crane, puts details on white New Balance sneakers with a paintbrush.

He, with the help of street artist Gaia, is creating “Aurora,” a shadowy mixed-media art installation that depicts a lively bar scene. Fittingly, the work is on the front of the North Charles Street building that once housed the nightclub Gatsby’s.

It’s a bit of a surreal situation for a painter once arrested for graffiti as a student at the Baltimore School for the Arts.

“My dad took me to turn myself in for mugshots and fingerprints and all that good stuff,” said Shore, who teaches painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in addition to his art activity.

These days, Shore and other local artists are bringing Baltimore’s arts scene to light, literally, to Station North. With the support of Mayor Brandon Scott’s office and a $1 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge, these new illuminated works are part of “Inviting Light,” a public arts project curated by visual artist Derrick Adams.

On Saturday, the project’s next pieces — “Aurora” and Phaan Howng’s “Big Ass Snake (Plants) on a Plane” — will debut at the art district’s 1700 and 1800 blocks of North Charles Street at a free unveiling party from 6-10:30 p.m. with DJs, food vendors and more.

The first flickers of “Inviting Light” began in the fall of 2023, when Baltimore was one of eight U.S. cities selected out of 154 applicants. The competition aims to spark public discourse about pressing civic issues while beautifying city neighborhoods through public art.

Stephanie Dockery, a member of the Bloomberg Philanthropies arts team, said Baltimore’s pitch was appealing because its artists would refresh vacant spaces and buildings into sites for eye-catching public art.

Adams made a natural fit as the project’s curator. While the Park Heights native splits his time between Brooklyn, New York, and Baltimore, he’s remained a vocal champion of his hometown as his professional profile has risen to international acclaim.

For “Inviting Light,” he tasked the artists — Shore, Howng, Zoë Charlton, Ekene Ijeoma, and the duo of Daniel Wickerham and Malcolm Lomax — with creating works on a larger scale than they’re used to while incorporating lit-up elements like LED and solar lights. The staggered debuts of the works began with Charlton’s in late March and culminate this fall when all five pieces will be on display.

“Although the project is dealing with electricity and technical things, I was more interested in artists that I thought would be able to rise to the challenge of stretching their creative muscle to make something that they’ve never made before,” said Adams, who also recently co-curated Artscape’s new Scout Art Fair.

“Inviting Light” kicked off with “Third Watch,” Charlton’s trio of 9-foot statues on the balcony and bell towers of the North Avenue Market. The statues, inspired by sculptures made by the Bangwa people in West Cameroon, depict a woman whose pregnant belly glows with a bright-blue hue — a nurturing reimagining of the Baltimore Police Department’s blue CitiWatch surveillance cameras throughout the city.

On Saturday, the next additions to “Inviting Light”will be plugged in and brought to life. Shore’s piece channels natural phenomena, asking what would happen if the aurora borealis came to Baltimore.

Howng’s installation is a cheeky ode to the snake plant — “the unsung hero of plant porn,” she said with a laugh — with its sprawling yellow and olive leaves delivering vegetative drama to the garage across from the Charles Theatre.

Howng, whose works have been shown at the Baltimore Museum of Art and Washington, D.C.’s Smithsonian Gardens, compares her approach to public art to a “gateway drug”: It’s a potential entry point to a rabbit hole of botanical history and layered meanings, but can also be enjoyed for the simple pleasure of viewing.

“I wanted to have this thing that entertains me — or like, ‘I need to look at this crazy-ass plant because I love plants.’ It just feels like there’s so many different avenues that connect various populations,” she said. “For me, when I do public artwork, that’s what matters.”

While the $1 million grant pays the artists and their teams, along with fabrication and installation of the works, it also pays for community-minded programming associated with “Inviting Light,” Dockery said.

At Charlton’s event, crowds toured open houses at Baltimore Youth Arts and Currency Studio, and saw a dramatic four-hour performance led by Ada Pinkston in the former Stillpoint Theatre space. The Central Baltimore Partnership hosted a free panel discussion at MICA about light’s role in surveillance and safety. Saturday’s event will include a festive dance party with DJs Ducky Dynamo, GRL PWR and more.

“There’s a strong layer of community engagement with all of the projects,” Dockery said.

“Inviting Light” is a temporary project, with the grant set to fund its operations for two years, although Dockery said the installations could live on longer if the involved parties, including the building owners, can work out the logistics with the city. The exception is Wickerham & Lomax’s “Soft Gym,” which will permanently transform the vacant outdoor space at 101 W. North Ave. into the new YNOT Lot performance pavilion.

Public art is rarely forever, but its impact — the awe and inspiration it sparks, the conversations it starts — could be felt for generations to come. Adams has witnessed it happen firsthand in cities like New York and Miami, and believes Baltimore could be the next to thrive, if given the proper support.

“Art always plays a really major role in having people become introduced to communities or areas that people may overlook or discount or avoid,” he said. “People I know who visit Baltimore are really attracted to the authenticness of the city.”

Now, this latest project displays the ingenuity and originality of Baltimore’s arts scene under its own bright lights.

This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Phaan Howng's last name.