The Cloud Factory - On the Road
Jenny Dowd
This summer, thanks to a program with Jackson Hole Public Art, The Cloud Factory made a return to Wyoming. (Click here to catch up on the history of The Cloud Factory)
In late July Sam and I made the long trek from NW Arkansas to NW Wyoming.
As soon as we arrived in Jackson we met up with friends and got to work making clouds in a park. I brought some clouds along with me, and we were well stocked with clouds made by the summer interns at JH Public Art, but we didn’t know how many would be needed. We used paper and fabric, embellishing with drawings and stitching, and either made them hang on a string or soar from a stick!
(To see how to make clouds visit the Get Involved page on the Cloud Factory website)
JH Public Art found a refrigerator box and I spent an afternoon making it into a Portable Dispensing Unit. After cutting the openings for the coin and the clouds to be dispensed from, I added instructions (insert coin, get cloud) and decorated the box with clouds.
How does the Portable Dispensing Unit work? The unit is too small to produce clouds, so we stock it with clouds that have been made offsite. The Unit only works with official Cloud Factory coins which we hand out freely. With the coin, the option is Cloud on a Stick or Cloud on a String… insert coin, get cloud! (See this previous post for more behind the scenes info)
With the help of JH Public Art Interns (Cloud Engineers) we popped up and dispensed clouds at 2 locations on August 2nd. In the morning we were on the Glenwood boardwalk between D.O.G and Penny Lane. Our audience was pretty skeptical, it was a dreary rainy day and most people just wanted some coffee. Even so, we convinced several people to take our free coins and choose a cloud on a stick or cloud on a string. Many a mood was brightened and the smiles and laughs made it all worth it.
After a few hours we folded up the Portable Dispensing Unit and moved it to the Center for the Arts for the Wednesday evening People’s Market. Some people remembered the Portable Dispensing Unit from the summer of 2021 when it briefly popped up on the boardwalk and some remembered the giant Cloud Factory from the lawn of the Center for the Arts in 2020. It was a long day of dispensing clouds but it was full of laughter and cloud factory sound effects.
With the help of my fearless Cloud Engineers, we dispensed over 300 clouds to the surprised people who encountered us!
Visit The Cloud Factory website to view the dreamy video that captured the magic of the day, made by cinematographer Blake Ciulla
Until next time!
