Art-O-Mat

A few years ago while I was an art student in college, a lady in one of my classes told me about Art-O-Mat. For those of you who are not familiar with this, an Art-O-Mat is a retired cigarette machine that has been converted to vend art. There are over 90 of these machines located across the country. Something interesting to me is that there are many found in Winston-Salem, NC, probably due to the fact that it is a city known for it's tobacco industry.

There are currently about 400 artists from around the globe that submit art to Art-O-Mat. The artwork has to be small enough to fit certain dimensions. Several of the artists create either small wooden blocks (2D work) to put their work in small boxes (to contain 3D work). Artists who are interested go through an application process, and if selected, are asked to create 50 pieces. For all of the artists that have been selected and contribute work to Art-O-Mat, there is a page of all of their names on the Art-O-Mat website with links to the artists websites and it has their contact information.

To find out more, check out Art-O-Mat's website at www.artomat.org