More than 250 retired cigarette vending machines are being used to sell $5, cigarette carton-sized works of art nationwide, including in Columbia.

North Carolina artist Clark Whittington started Art-o-mat in 1997 as states were working to ban cigarette machines from public spaces accessible to minors. Columbia has been home to an Art-o-mat since the art organization One Columbia began leasing the machine in 2015. 

The Art-o-mat travels around the city, it has been at the Moxy Marriott Downtown Columbia since the start of September. Lavender Grant, a combination bartender and concierge at the Moxy, said the machine’s novelty is what keeps bringing her back. 

“I talk about it all the time,” Grant said. “I love the Art-o-mat. They change, like, every two weeks or so, which is right when I get paid so, like, I get so many things.” 

Mia Hamilton, founder of the weirdgirlinfluencer social media page, said that quick turn-around is key to ensuring the machine is consistently used. Hamilton, a graduate of the University of South Carolina, likes where the machine is now. It adds a fun, retro-flare to the lobby without being out of place, she said. Putting the machine in the Moxy is ideal for drawing in visitors from the hotel and the local creative community. 

“But at the end of the day, the core target audience is always those creatives, and those are the people that are gonna keep coming back if the art keeps changing,” Hamilton said. “The Venn diagram’s a circle, the people supporting it in that creative community are also the people who are filling the machine.”

Some local artists contribute, but the work isn’t always sold locally.

Artists also are helped because the Art-o-mat provides an entry-level basis for artists to start producing their work on a commercial scale. That helps the art world be less intimidating and exclusionary.

The Art-o-mat company gives $2.50 of the $5 price back to the artist and $1.50 to One Columbia, which donates it back to participating artists. 

“I think really the core of it, and something that kind of happens on the other side that people don’t realize is, it gives people the inspiration to create,” Hamilton said. “So many people create and then that stuff just gets lost in the algorithm. … And initiatives like the Art-o-mat give artists a purpose for their creations and also some financial backing.”

Many of the artists include a small insert in their box with their social media page or website, so the buyer can find them and potentially buy again. 

One of the biggest draws for artists is the ability to produce their work for a platform that centers on them instead of the consumer. The Art-o-mat also allows artists to create for themselves without fear of judgment, Grant said. 

“I think it’s less about the individuals that buy the art and more about the artists,” Grant said. “It gives them more confidence to go out and do more, make larger, be more daring.”