The lights will go on at the new Tampa Museum of Art on Thursday, two days before the grand opening. And the most colorful ones will be outside.

More than 500 feet of programmable light emitting diodes, or LEDs, positioned artfully on the south façade of the building will illuminate Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park and parts of downtown for several hours every day after sunset.

Designed and programmed by Texas-born New York artist Leo Villareal, "Sky" is an abstract light show, with a lot of randomness in the sequence of color and movement.

"It's very painterly," Villareal, 42, said during a recent visit to Tampa. "My interest was in creating a work that interacts on many levels - with people, cars, students walking by."

It's a light show that also is a permanent piece of art for the museum. As such, it will continue to light up downtown for as long as the museum wants it to.

"Part of our commitment is to be a public place and support public art," said museum director Todd Smith. "So we wanted our first work to be a public work."

The installation also gives some hint about the museum's intended direction.

"The idea that we've used our acquisition money to do the outside of the museum this way sends a strong message that we're trying to be relevant to 21st century art movements," Smith said.

Villareal, who recently did installations at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., says it is called "Sky," because it is one of a series of works he's doing that are based on clouds and sunsets. But the colors and configuration of Tampa's piece were created specifically for Tampa. Villareal made numerous visits to Tampa in the past year and sat with his computer in Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park playing out different themes of light.

"I used the environment to inform the sequence of colors," said Villareal, who was still editing the piece at the time of the interview. "I think blues and greens will look really good up there."

But the final pattern and colors remain to be seen. When the lights go on.

Correspondent Esther Hammer can be reached at ehammer@tampatrib.com.