The Art-O-Mat uses obsolete cigarette vending machines to sell handmade artworks created by artists in the United States and in the developing world.

These original artworks that are the same size as a pack of cigarettes, and sell for up to $5 each, with $2 per sale going back to the artist.

Brainchild of Clark Whittington, an artist who created the first Art-O-Mat in 1997, 190 artists from seven countries have joined the project. This includes a group from the village of Krofofrom in Ghana, who produce miniature figurines using a bronze casting technique that dates back 1,000 years. They are paid a fair price for their work, helping conditions for a village community that has seen the arrival of electricity only within the last two years and enabling the younger artists to pay their school fees.

Most of the Art-O-Mat machines operating in the USA are in small coffee houses and bookshops, but others have been placed in the Whitney Museum of American Art and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, giving the artists recognition for their work, as well as a fair price.

www.artomat.org