Vending Machine Dispenses Art at TPAC (transcript)

By Nina Cardona

A trip to see a show at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center often begins with a few purchases in the lobby: a program, maybe a visit to the concession stand. Now, as WPLN’s Nina Cardona reports, visitors will also find a new way to buy art.

Audio for this feature is available here.

The Art-o-Mat looks like an old-fashioned cigarette vending machine because, well, that’s what it used to be. But now, instead of Winstons and Marlboros, the machine holds 110 one-of-a-kind works of art.

TPAC spokesperson Amanda Saad says it’s fun to watch people make a purchase.

Saad: “You know, you look at all the little selections, you decide what you’re going to choose: seashell jewelry or a small sculpture or painting, they make their choice, they put in their money…

…You know it’s that sort of blind, grab bag novelty where all the sudden, somebody gives you a mystery prize for this small little price and you can’t wait to see what you’re going to get.”

What comes out of the machine is a box the same size as a pack of cigarettes. The art itself is inside, wrapped up like a present. Inside could be a tiny, beaded bag just large enough to hold a coin, or a collage the size of a business card.

Saad: “We’re allowing people to be patrons of the arts at a very small price. So for five dollars they’re becoming purchasers of one-of-a-kind artwork.”

The machine at TPAC is the first Art-o-Mat in Nashville, but machines like it have been popping up around the country for over a decade. Saad says the venture started as an experiment by North Carolina artist Chuck Whittington during one of his gallery exhibits.

Saad: “He created just one of these machines as a novelty, put his own black and white photographs in it for sale for a dollar a piece and it was so successful that the gallery owner asked to keep it there permanently.”

Now Whittington has 80 refurbished machines around the US. Whittington also finds artists from all over, collects their work, and sends it out to venues, like TPAC..

Alice Raver stocks the Art-o-Mat with those boxes, and admits she’s bought plenty for herself and as gifts for friends. Right now, she’s particularly taken with one artists’ work.

Raver: “Inside the tissue paper is a homemade matchbook, and when you open the lid of the matchbook are two tiny, like one inch by one inch photographs of buildings or landscapes or flowers, just beautiful.”

A sign on the machine tells local artists how they can sell their work via the Art-o-Mat. Raver says one midstate artist already participates, and they can’t keep her work in stock.

Raver: “Earrings made out of computer parts, and they sold out in, like, two days!”

So far, the venture is a success for TPAC. Raver has had to restock the machine about twice a month since it was installed.

For Nashville Public Radio, I’m Nina Cardona.