“It’s the only bird that is known to intentionally enter into a cloud”

We are pleased to announce that the poet Katharine Towers will be the Cloud Appreciation Society poet in residence for 2016. As part of her new role, Katharine will be writing a short poem each month inspired the Cloud of the Month. We can’t wait to read what she produces, which we will share with you here.

Katharine Towers is Member 31567 of the Cloud Appreciation Society. Her first poetry collection ‘The Floating Man’ was published in 2010 and won the Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize. Her second collection ‘The Remedies’ is published by Picador in August. Landscape and nature feature prominently in her work; she lives in the Peak District with her husband and two daughters and spends a lot of time walking or running in the hills, stopping to peer at wildflowers or look up at the clouds. She says she doesn’t yet know as much about clouds as she’d like. Her new role, drifting through the atmosphere of the Cloud Appreciation Society, will certainly solve that.

Here is a poem that Katherine wrote about the asperitas cloud, which is the new classification that has come out of the Cloud Appreciation Society:

undulatus asperitas

Once we saw a great cloud, made of ice
like any other cloud but wind-sheared
and drooping in the heavy air.
It lolled against the hill but no storm fell.

Barometers dropped like stones and it was
purple-dark, even in the early afternoon.
The ruckled sky had us standing pointing
in the fields like scarecrows, and mostly afraid.

Girls fainted under the weight of ions
and some of us made thankful prayers
for the wonder of that rolling sea above.

They say that waves from underneath
are kind and do not mean us harm –
even seem to love us; and it’s bliss to drown.

© Katharine Towers, from The Remedies, published by Picador.

Saturday 9 July 2016 saw a great display over Dorset, England, of the new classification of cloud, known as ‘asperitas’…

This summer Kings College London will be hosting a series of connected performances exploring clouds and Utopian daydreams entitled The Naming Of Clouds. Clouds workers will be mysteriously creating and undoing patterns on the riverside terrace during the day for visitors to interact with. The next performances are on 6th August and 3rd September when spectators will be able to enter a Utopian daydream among the clouds.

The Naming Of Cloud is part of Kings College’s Paths To Utopia, a collection of new art works resulting from collaborations between artists, performers, architects, technologists and King’s College London academics to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s inspirational book Utopia. It was co-written and co-devised by Penny Newell and Philip Stainier.

To book tickets and for more information, please visit the the Kings College Website

The Naming Of Clouds – Paths To Utopia – Kings College London, Somerset House

We are very excited to launch the first Cloud Appreciation Society holiday, which will be taking place at the end of February 2017. The Society will be travelling to the beautiful wilderness of Canada’s Norther Territories to what we consider to be the best destination in the world for watching Nature’s ultimate sky spectacle: the Northern Lights.

[qbutton size=”large” style=”” text=”See our amazing aurora trip…” icon_pack=”” fa_icon=”” fe_icon=”” icon_color=”” link=”/canada-northern-lights-holiday/” target=”_self” color=”” hover_color=”” border_color=”” hover_border_color=”” background_color=”” hover_background_color=”” font_style=”” font_weight=”” text_align=”” margin=””]

Cloud Appreciation Society supporter H Brown has recently adopted a tree on behalf of the Society

Rebekah Westphal, member number 41051, told us about “Common Clouds” by Kevin Van Aelst. We love this interpretation of cloud identification in coffee and thank Kevin for contributing his piece. You can learn more about him on his website here.

Society founder, Gavin Pretor-Pinney was recently interviewed by 612 ABC Brisbane

Our beautiful new tees are now available in the Cloud Shop. They were printed for us here in the UK by the eco-award-winning Rapanui Factory, onto 100% organic cotton that was made ethically in a wind-powered factory in India with a fully traceable supply chain. Find out more….

“Songs and the Sky” is an exhibition of art and music currently showing at Bruce Silverstein Gallery in New York until 18th June 2016.

The exhibition title derives from Alfred Stieglitz’s historic series, Songs of the Sky, the artist’s original title for the Equivalents (1925-1937). Similar to notes in a musical score, these images of cloud patterns form an abstract, universal visual language equivalent to the artist’s inner state, emotion, and ideas. This exhibition is a rare opportunity to view such a large collection of Equivalents.

Please visit the Bruce Silverstein Gallery for more information

The New York Times Magazine recently published an informative – and at times, moving – feature by Jon Mooallem about the Cloud Appreciation Society. Read the online version to discover how the Society came about and to learn of our efforts to have a new type of cloud accepted by the World Meteorological Organisation. Bear in mind, however, that the story ends in tears…