Cloudy With a Chance of Joy
A new sky of smiling clouds floats in the Seattle Art Museum’s main lobby
By Sarah Stackhouse July 8, 2025
The latest installation at SAM is hard to miss: 40 big, grinning clouds now hover above the Brotman Forum, the museum’s main entrance space. Each one is four feet wide and made of white plastic, designed to look like it’s drifting gently overhead.
The piece is called Little Cloud Sky, created by FriendsWithYou, a Los Angeles–based duo made up of Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III. Since 2002, they’ve built playful, oversized sculptures and immersive installations meant to spread joy and spark connection. This is their first long-term museum installation.
The smiling cloud itself has been a recurring figure in their work for over 20 years — a symbol, they say, of “peace and connectivity, with a calm joy that can be felt universally.” In a past version of the installation at London’s Covent Garden, they described it as “a portal into a happy place where joy and harmony are waiting for you.” FriendsWithYou’s aim is to invite people to pause, look up, and imagine a more friendly world together.
The cloud also floated in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2018. Their latest piece, The BAND, is a set of five fuzzy, interactive robots on view at the Cleveland Public Library.
Little Cloud Sky is free to view anytime during museum hours — no ticket needed. Just walk into the lobby and look up.
Follow Us
Studio Sessions: Jo Cosme
The Seattle-based multimedia artist and 2026 Neddy Award winner challenges the postcard version of Puerto Rico and centers the persistence of its people.
Jo Cosme knows how seductive a postcard can be. The Seattle-based Boricua (Puerto Rican) multimedia artist works across photography, installation, video, sound, and interactive elements to examine and pull apart how Puerto Rico is seen, sold, and misunderstood from the outside. Trained in photojournalism, with a BFA in photography from Puerto Rico School of Fine…
Seattle’s Drag Brunch Has History
The city’s Sunday shows started long before the mimosas got bottomless.
There was a time not too long ago, when drag performances—now a mainstay of Seattle’s queer scene—were kept under wraps. And when brunches, complete with singing and dancing queens dressed in dazzling drag as you sipped mimosas, weren’t a Sunday staple. During the 1940s and ‘50s, an era largely shaped by restrictive laws and bias…
Studio Sessions: Sangram Majumdar
Working at the confluence of history, culture, and various painting traditions, UW associate professor Sangram Majumdar is one of this year’s Neddy Artist Award winners.
Discover the art of UW professor Sangram Majumdar, a 2026 Neddy Artist Award winner. Learn about his inspiration and upcoming Seattle exhibition at Cornish.
Rearview Mirror: A Georgian Dinner, Sidewalk Sips, and One-of-a-Kind Clothing
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
A new life for old clothes To celebrate one year in its current studio, the FXRY—a clothing repair service available via in-person appointments, home pickup, or mail-in drop off—is dropping its first collection. A small batch of reworked pieces, Second Mark will feature 13 vintage barn jackets, cropped, chain-stitched, and renewed into a completely unique, one-of-one…