Trendy art vending machines hit Charlotte breweries

Loot Drop Art Club is bringing affordable art vending machines to Charlotte-area breweries and beyond. Photo by Bunny Eaton

In the back of the Divine Barrel Brewing tap room in NoDa, pinball machines and board games surround a vending machine. The machine, with a skyline of Charlotte painted on the side window, isn’t there to drop a KitKat or bag of Bugles for a late-night snack. It’s there to sell art.

The machine is one of 10 installed throughout the Charlotte region by Loot Drop Art Club, a creative vending venture by longtime friends Bunny Eaton and Ben Loomis.

The two met while studying at Appalachian State University in Boone. Eaton, a painter originally from Charlotte, now calls Hickory home. Loomis is an author and electrician who grew up in a military family, living all over, until he landed in Boone, where he’s been for 12 years. In 2019, the two came up with the idea for a vending machine to dispense art while in Portland, Oregon, where Loomis was living at the time.

“I went out to visit (Loomis), and we found an art vending machine in the back of a bar,” said Eaton. “As an artist, I was making art. He is an author and writes books. We thought we could bring this back to our college town, and we could sell our work, and our friends’ work, through a vending machine, like a miniature art gallery.”

Read more at The Charlotte Observer.