Art-o-mat

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An Art-o-mat is a recycled cigarette machine which sells miniature works of art in a variety of formats. Clark Whittington, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina came up with the concept in 1997. Clark found an old cigarette machine and decided to include it in a solo art exhibition at Penny Universitie, a local cafe. In June 1997, it was installed, along with 12 of his paintings. The machine sold Whittington's black & white photographs for $1.00 each.

As his exhibit time finished he was set to dismantle it, however cafe owner Cynthia Giles liked the concept so much she asked it to remain. With her help Whittington began soliciting input and projects from other artists. Today there are 82 machines throughout the United States, and over 400 artists from 10 different countries participating to the project. To this day, the original Art-o-mat machine is at the same cafe, now called Mary's Of Course. In January 2006, Art-o-mat will install its first international machine in The Gallery on the Green in Surrey, England.

Machines are set to sell pieces for $5.00 to $7.00. The forms of art vary greatly and can include anything from original paintings or pastel sketches to homemade earrings to abstract metal works. Each has the overall stored dimension of approximately one pack of cigarettes (2 1/8" x 3 1/4" x 7/8")

Some states have only one or two machines, such as Ohio and Florida, respectively. Whittington's home state of North Carolina has the most, at 24.

External links

http://www.artomat.org

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