This story is published as part of the Baltimore News Collaborative, a project exploring the challenges and successes experienced by young people in Baltimore. The collaborative is supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. News members of the collaborative retain full editorial control.

The Eastside District Court Building on North Avenue looks like any other municipal building on first glance: worn wooden benches, speckled floor tile and taped-up signage that reads, “Please wait to be called.”

But a closer scan of the Baltimore courthouse reveals unexpected bursts of color amid finely detailed drawings and paintings. The works — ranging from realistic portraits to stylized still lifes — add vibrancy and liveliness to the eggshell-colored walls.

Remarkably, they were all made by Baltimore City Public School students, many of whom gathered at the courthouse on a recent overcast evening for an emotional awards reception. Now in its ninth year, Courting Art Baltimore gives scholarships to high school students while providing a public platform for their impressive artistic abilities.

For these students, seeing their art, framed and prominently displayed, is a validation of their budding talents.

“I never was like, ‘Oh, I want to be an artist or anything like that.’ I didn’t think I was capable of doing anything that good,” said Selyna Williams, a senior at Mergenthaler Vocational Technical High School whose self-portrait won fourth place. “So it’s kind of cool seeing it in here.”

Courting Art — which awarded $20,500 in scholarships to seven winners this year — also aims to bring a sense of meditative calm to the courthouse, where the art can provide an antidote to rising tensions related to its domestic cases. Today, more than 130 works permanently hang on the courthouse walls.

“I can’t even tell you how many times my students or people I know have walked through the halls of the court and said, ‘I saw those Mervo paintings. I recognized those faces and I immediately calmed down and was able to go back into the courthouse and have a conversation about what was going on,’ ” said Mervo’s Athanasia Kyriakako, who was named the 2017 Maryland Teacher of the Year.

Retired judge Halee Weinstein started the competition in Baltimore after first encountering it in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Her goal was to “change the narrative” around city students.

“I know from having two kids who went to Baltimore City public high schools that there are amazing, talented, wonderful kids in Baltimore City who don’t always get the recognition they deserve,” Weinstein said.

Moments earlier, she beamed with pride while announcing the 2025 winners. She was far from alone as students and parents shed tears and smiled widely as the names were called.

“That’s my baby! You made mama proud,” exclaimed the mother of Christian Hicks, the Paul Laurence Dunbar High School junior who won $4,500 for second place with a self-portrait.

The $7,500 top prize went to Baltimore Polytechnic Institute’s Jaylyn Walker, whose expressive oil painting depicts herself looking up at her brother Jamal Jr. and sister Journey as the trio are draped by a blanket. Walker, who’s headed to Morgan State University to study architecture, said winning “means a lot.”

“It’s such a blessing, just allowing her to be her unique self and explore art,” her mother, Jovonne Walker, said of the contest. “It’s a confidence-builder.”

As a Baltimore middle school student, Laila Williams wasn’t accepted into the arts-focused high schools her friends would attend. But in 2023, as a senior at Western High School, she took Courting Art’s top prize with a self-portrait made with charcoal and graphite.

Describing the win as “a wake-up call,” Williams said it gave her the confidence to study art after high school. Today, the first-generation college student majors in illustration as a Maryland Institute College of Art rising junior and wants to be a comics artist.

”At first, I was really afraid,” Williams said of submitting her work. “But I’m really glad I took that leap.”

The competition, which is open to all Baltimore public school students, kicked off in March, when applicants submitted entries. All submissions were displayed in April at Baltimore Unity Hall, where a panel of judges selected 23 finalists based on criteria ranging from technical skill and composition to originality.

When the program began, Weinstein and Courting Art co-founder and attorney Brian Katzenberg struggled to get submissions. But each year, the competition has grown, from applicants and prize money to the inclusion of MICA, which awarded placements in its pre-college program this year.

The expansion has been driven by Arts Every Day. The nonprofit advocacy group manages the program, increasing outreach to schools to encourage participation and helping to raise money for scholarships.

To date, Courting Art has awarded more than $170,000 in scholarships and $14,500 in art store gift cards, said Betty Gonzales, Arts Every Day’s director of operations.

Julia Di Bussolo, the organization’s executive director, credited Courting Art’s continued success to the school district’s teachers and their dedication to their students.

“They really recognize the possibilities before them when they’re in their classrooms,” Di Bussolo said. “They seek out additional opportunities to share their [students’] work, to be recognized. And that’s a lot of extra effort for the teachers.”

While Courting Art partners with Arts Every Day, BCPS, the CollegeBound Foundation, Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and the legal firm Gordon Feinblatt, raising the scholarship funds each year poses a challenge, Gonzales said.

“We wish we could give more because sometimes it still feels like a drop in the bucket in the long run,” Gonzales said.

But beyond money, Courting Art serves an intangible purpose, organizers and participants said. It further proves the students’ promising talents deserve nurturing.

As he enters his senior year, Christian Hicks said Courting Art “helped me realize I could use my art in a way that can help people.” He wants to continue improving after high school — hopefully at MICA if he gets in. Regardless of where he attends college, the 17-year-old is confident that art has him on the right track.

“I still have a lot to grow,” Hicks said. “So no matter where I go, it’s like, as long as I keep doing it and just keep going, I think either way I’m going to be good.”