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.
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