Distroboto
Distroboto, started in 2001, by Louis Rastelli in Montreal. It is run by Arcmtl (Archive Montreal). Distroboto also uses cigarette vending machines. In fact, Rastelli got the idea in 1999 when, on a trip to North Carolina, he encountered an Art*o*Mat ®.
Remarkably, Distroboto vends for $2 and gives the artist a $1.75 cut! Unfortunately, for those of us living outside of Montreal, Distroboto is only available in Montreal:
The mandate of the Distroboto project is to provide an opportunity to new and emerging artists of all disciplines – visual arts, film, animation, music, literature and poetry, crafts etc. – to gain wider exposure by making examples of their work easily accessible to the public.
The low $2 price of the work sold through the Distroboto machines as well as the original way in which it is sold encourages the public to discover a whole world of local art that they might not have otherwise encountered.
The fact that the project is administered by a non-profit arts organization allows nearly all sales revenues to go directly to the artists, who are responsible for the cost of producing the work sold.
Since the first Distroboto machine was launched in January, 2001, more than 750 local artists have sold more than 50 000 items through these machines.
Their work looks so tantalizing, and worth a trip to Montreal:
