Major League Baseball (MLB) first ever Artist in Residence
This project marked a deliberate shift in how the San Francisco Giants approach premium experiences — moving from static, controlled environments to live, culturally driven platforms designed to perform in public.
The brief
The Cloud Club is a premium 140-capacity space at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. It’s the stadium’s only all-inclusive offering and commands a premium ticket price.
Traditionally, the club defined its identity through experiential takeovers. Over time, membership plateaued, and the team began exploring single-game access to reach a broader audience without alienating existing members.
Historically, activations in the space were passive — visually polished but culturally quiet. The brief wasn’t to refine the offering. It was to reposition it: raise awareness, create demand, and test whether a premium space could operate as a platform rather than a closed product.
The Problem
Premium environments in sport will often default to safety. That safety was an issue.
- The Cloud Club wasn’t culturally visible beyond its members
- Another environmental takeover likely wouldn’t generate noise or repeat interest
- Opening access risked diluting the premium experience
- Any misstep would be highly public, especially on high-profile games
This needed to do more than look good. It needed to perform culturally, commercially, and emotionally.
The idea
The idea was to convert part of the club into a working studio and invite San Francisco artist Jeremy Fish, with whom we’d recently collaborated and who had a strong following among the local fanbase, to create new work live during games. Over the course of 19 home games, the work would build night by night, responding to each game as it happened. The club wouldn’t host a finished exhibition — it would become a record of that stretch of the season as it unfolded.
This wasn’t typical for a stadium. It’s the kind of format you’d expect in a gallery, which was exactly the point.
One thing was non-negotiable: the artist had to be on site. Without live creation, it risked feeling passive and wouldn’t change how the space behaved. Having the artist present increased cost and complexity, but it was essential to the integrity of the idea and its potential to generate attention.
Risk and resistance
Initially, there was some reticence amongst senior stakeholders.
- The business preferred an exhibition to a residency
- A residency meant dedicating valuable floor space, reducing capacity on busy games
- There was concern about alienating existing members
- Media access had to be comped, with no guarantee of favourable coverage
This was the first time the Giants, and effectively MLB, had attempted anything like this. It could easily have failed publicly
The trade-off was intentional: short-term capacity vs long-term demand and repositioning. A full, energised club broadcast across social and media channels was worth more than a few additional covers on a given night.
Experience strategy
The experience was shaped end to end, with each moment setting up the next rather than standing alone.
ARRIVAL
The experience started before people reached the club. When guests stepped out of the elevator, they moved through a branded entry space that shifted the mood from stadium to studio. It was a simple transition, designed to reset expectations before they entered the room.
ACCESS
Nothing was roped off. At this level, access matters, so that was protected. Jeremy worked from a raised platform facing home plate — visible, but not separated. It set a clear working boundary without creating distance, and people interacted naturally throughout each game.
INTEGRATION, NOT TAKEOVER
Artwork was embedded into existing fixtures rather than imposed on the space. The goal was to enrich the club, not disrupt it. Jeremy also curated premium menu items and drinks, extending the experience beyond visuals and into hospitality — more a window into his mind than a traditional exhibition.
Realtime iterating
Because this was a member space, stagnation was a real risk. The residency was actively tuned throughout its run.
- Output changed night to night
- Timings were adjusted to increase interaction
- Jeremy produced 1-to-1 artefacts (custom-illustrated baseballs)
- Layout and pacing were refined so the experience never felt peripheral, even on quieter games
At the same time, Jeremy documented the residency daily across his own channels, allowing fans who couldn’t attend to still feel part of the experience. The club became both a physical and digital content engine.
Results
The impact was immediate and measurable.
- Primetime coverage on NBC News, with features in SFGate
- 10× increase in social reach compared to previous Cloud Club activations
- Single-game Cloud Club tickets sold out
- Additional ballpark tours added in response to demand
- A three-month follow-on exhibition at the Haight Street Art Center
SFGate writer, Alex Simon, called it “...the Giants’ biggest home run of the year.” It started as a gamble. It landed as a benchmark.
Reflection
This project changed how the Cloud Club was understood internally. It showed that a premium space doesn’t have to be sealed off or static to protect its value. When treated as something live — shaped by people, moments, and real use — it can generate demand, attention, and revenue at once.
More importantly, it set a precedent. Premium environments shouldn't sit in isolation. Used effectively, they can serve as significant platforms for ticketing, media, and city presence without compromising what makes them special. In this case, culture wasn’t decoration. It was the mechanism that made the space work.