A snack machine inside Higher Grounds by Manolo, the coffee shop tucked into Myers Park United Methodist Church at 1501 Queens Rd., got a makeover this week. Installed Monday, the 100% cashless machine now dispenses original artwork from 15 Charlotte-area artists, with pieces priced between $5 and $50, instead of chips or candy bars.
A Vending Machine Turned Micro-Gallery
ARTS — Art in a Really Tiny Space — is a project by local artist Caro Yanez, who founded ARTS Collective in January. The group is using repurposed vending machines to put local artwork into everyday settings, according to The Charlotte Observer. Yanez told the outlet that artists can adapt work to fit the machine, making it a compact alternative to displaying art on a mural or museum wall.
The approach is intended to connect Charlotte-area artists with residents and visitors in places they already frequent, Progreso Hispano News reported. In her Observer interview, Yanez described limited exhibition opportunities for artists as one motivation for the project and said she hopes buying original art can become as casual and routine as buying a morning latte.
Fifteen Artists, One Official Launch
The inaugural lineup includes Amy De Hoyos, Anand Wakankar, Ashaki Ali, Ashley Proctor, Brittany Portner, Buddy Jones, David Sollars, Diane H. Hancock, Jenny White, Kassidy Childs, Kerrie Neumann, Keudis Sanchez, Louanne and Sarah Woznicki, Skye Young and Zulynette Morales, all cited in the Observer's coverage. Each piece sold through the machine comes with contact information meant to help collectors track down the artists' larger work, including sculptures, murals and large canvas paintings.
ARTS Collective has scheduled a ribbon-cutting and official launch celebration for Saturday at Higher Grounds by Manolo, according to the Observer. Progreso Hispano News reports the event is set for 2 p.m. and frames it as the project's official inauguration, part of an effort that the outlet says will periodically renew its curated offerings to spark new discoveries and connections among artists, buyers and local businesses.
City Funding and a Mayor's Endorsement
The project received funding through the City of Charlotte's Creative Growth Grant program, which the Observer describes as designed to bring art into more neighborhoods and public spaces. ARTS Collective was awarded $17,000 to fund two machines, per that reporting. The grant initiative itself has backed a wide range of local creative work: according to QCNerve, the program offers three tiers of funding, from Professional Development grants of up to $2,500 to Operational Support grants of up to $25,000, after Charlotte City Council allocated $2 million for independent creatives and arts organizations and awarded a $285,000 contract to Charlotte Is Creative to administer it. The city later announced 106 artists and arts organizations as recipients of the 2025 round of grants, per the City of Charlotte.
ARTS Collective credited Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles for supporting the initiative, the Observer reported. Lyles said the city is committed to strengthening its arts and culture ecosystem and fueling creativity throughout Charlotte, according to that same account. A second ARTS machine is planned for another high-traffic location similar to the coffee shop, though its exact site has not yet been announced.
Charlotte Joins a Growing Vending-Machine Art Scene
The Myers Park installation lands amid a broader wave of art vending projects taking root across the region and beyond. Charlotte-based Loot Drop Art Club, founded by longtime friends Bunny Eaton and Ben Loomis, began with 10 machines across the region by May 2025 and sold local art priced from $8 to $20, according to the Charlotte Observer's earlier reporting, which also noted the company had installed 19 machines across Boone, Hickory, Asheville and Charlotte since 2020. More recently, WBTV reported Loot Drop's fleet had grown to 25 custom machines across Charlotte, Boone, Asheville and Raleigh, featuring work from dozens of North Carolina artists, after the company upgraded to full-sized machines back in December 2020.
Similar efforts have popped up nationwide. In Minneapolis, artist Lilyan Lauzon built a $1 mini art vending machine inside Inkwell Booksellers that has featured more than 80 artists and nearly 3,000 pieces of artwork since its October debut, with artists paying no participation fee and keeping the full dollar from each sale, per CBS News. In Austin, Austin Mini Art has sold more than 45,000 miniature prints priced between $1 and $3 since launching in January 2025, operating five machines around the city, four of which take credit cards, as reported by KUT, which noted the founders were exploring expansion to other cities. And in New York, a machine called Mystry Mart debuted at Coney Island's Margarita Island offering mystery artwork from 120 participating artists priced from $10 to $100, with buyers not knowing exactly what they purchased until after checkout, according to CBS News.
Other ways art reaches public spaces
Vending machines are one format for bringing art into everyday settings. ArtPop Street Gallery says its Artist Cohort exhibits Charlotte-region artists on billboards and other displays throughout the region, rather than selling work through a vending machine, as ARTS does. A museum-based example of art vending was documented in 2010, when the Smithsonian American Art Museum reported that an Art-O-Mat was dispensing art in its Luce Foundation Center. That account documents a museum installation but does not establish when or where Art-O-Mat began or describe its operating and artist-participation practices, limiting direct comparison with ARTS.
Artists interested in joining future rotations of the Charlotte machine can apply to submit rotating artwork via Instagram at @artscollectivenc or online at artscollectivenc.com, per the Observer's reporting. For now, the Myers Park machine stands as the project's first foray into putting a coffee run and an art purchase on the same trip.
