Kickstarter

Cloud Project is two-fold: it is a mobile coffee shop and it is also a conceptual piece. It is about the social role of the artist, as we, the artists in Cloud Project, are inviting visitors to interact with contemporary art in a sociable way.

We are interested in an art whose public strategies of engagement is a part of its aesthetic language. We want to reach an audience in ways that are less expected than inside a gallery setting. Ultimately, the purpose is to engage.

As the distance between artist and viewer has become more and more blurred, we recognize and embrace this collapse.  By way of directly addressing the function and everyday routines of life, Cloud Project aims to challenge the social constructions of values that define work and art.

Cloud Project is also a business: Cloud Coffee, LLC.  Cloud Coffee opened in Philadelphia in November 2012 providing coffee lovers and art lovers with a spirited and meaningful experience of communion.  The cornerstones of Cloud’s philosophy are creativity and delectation.

Cloud has started teaming up with galleries, we will be doing studio visits, we are applying to Calls for Work as Cloud Project, and we are creating our own Artist Prize. Operating as a practice, and as a business, will allow us to fund the activities we want to foster and participate in.

We, Matthew Craig and Kristen Mills, the partners and founders of Cloud Project, have put together the physical components and appliances necessary to begin functioning. Our next steps are logistic: to wire our trailer into the grid at Temple University, stock it with supplies, and pass the remaining inspections and permit applications for the city of Philadelphia… and we need your help.