Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.
Working at the front desk of Syracuse University’s Art Museum, SU senior Kyle Henry has recently noticed an influx of salt tracks in one of the lobby’s corners. Visitors have started to gather around the museum’s newest addition: a bright red mini print vending machine.
“It brings so much foot traffic,” Henry said. “It’s a vehicle for getting people to the museum.”
Installed over winter break, SU Art Museum’s new machine by Inciardi Prints has been operating since Jan. 20. By putting coins through the machine slots, visitors are surprised with one of 10 prints, depicting various images, from a SpongeBob popsicle to a jar of pickles. Each one is hand printed with a linocut design on a 3-by-5 inch card.
“It’s fun, it’s cool and it’s unique to be able to walk into a museum with four quarters and come out with your very own piece of handmade art,” Taylor Dean Westerlund, the museum’s communications and outreach specialist, said.
Founded in 2022 by artist Anastasia Inciardi, these mini print vending machines are stationed in museums, bookshops, restaurants and stores all over the country. Before shipping to vendors, the prints start as linocuts; a process where artists cut away an image’s negative space in a linoleum block. From there, ink is rolled over the carved block and pressed onto the canvas.
Westerlund has known about Inciardi Prints for a while, following Inciardi’s story online and visiting other machine locations. He and his colleagues thought the machine would be a “natural fit” for the school’s museum.
Inciardi Prints puts out several series of prints for host museums to choose from. The museum’s team picked out nine of Inciardi’s original prints, looking for Syracuse-oriented ones, like an orange or a salt shaker. They then coordinated with Inciardi to create one exclusive to SU — a mini print version of the “Winged Victory of Samothrace” statue.
“People are delighted to see our school and our school’s culture represented on a small scale like this,” Westerlund said.
Some students, like Henry who’s been working at the museum’s front desk since his freshman year, are drawn to the SU-specific prints. He’s seen many visitors cycle in for the machine, but he understands the popularity. He’s also used his own coins to purchase a print.
“It’s the coolest little thing for a college student,” Henry said. “You can just put it on a pin board or on a mirror.”
While some may be stopping into the museum between classes or while passing through campus, others, like Syracuse local Jocelyn Melchor, are serious print collectors.
When Syracuse University Art Museum visitors use the new museum’s machine by Inciardi Prints, they can only use four quarters to get their surprise print. The vending machine will deliver them one of 10 different art prints. Tara Deluca | Asst. Photo Editor Position
Melchor runs the Instagram account @miniprints4joy and has followed Inciardi Prints around the country. She began the account in 2024, when she revisited New York City and stumbled upon an Instagram post of the Inciardi Prints MetroCard print at their Grand Central Station pop up. She knew the city was phasing out physical MetroCards and wanted to take a print as a souvenir.
That one trip turned into a hobby for Melcho. Now she has collected over 400 prints from all over the country, including San Francisco and New Orleans. Soon after obtaining the MetroCard print, she joined an Inciardi Prints trading group on Reddit and now maintains a connection with the online community.
Melchor works a remote corporate job, so collecting prints is a chance to tap into her creative side and also visit different cities that host the print machines. Last October, she and her mother met Inciardi at an event in Maine, where Inciardi told Melchor that a machine would be coming to Syracuse.
“Ever since October, I’ve been twiddling my thumbs, wondering, ‘When is this gonna happen?’” Melchor said.
It was incredible to hear that something Melchor had been following was coming so close to home, she said.
The machine has attracted SU students and dedicated collectors, but its internet popularity has also drawn in others who are just curious about the art. On Monday, Syracuse locals Ajay Hicks and McKenna Hammill were scrolling TikTok when they saw a video featuring the mini print machine.
The duo drove to campus specifically for the machine, prepared with a purse full of quarters. Pushing the change through the slots, they left with six prints, then later went back for more. Hammill’s favorite was a detailed Tropicana orange juice carton, which she said reminded her of SU’s orange memorabilia.
“We love a trinket, something fun,” Hammill said. “It’s very cool how people can get these that are local to the area they’re visiting. It’s like a little memento.”
The machine is a means for all kinds of interaction, Westerlund said. He often sees people come in groups, get their prints and then trade with one another. Seeing people’s faces light up when they’re surprised with their new print gives him hope that they’ll come back for more, he said.
With just a month on site, it’s only the beginning of the traction the machine will bring in, Westerlund said. Incorporating initiatives to make art more accessible and communal is a big part of the museum’s mission. He hopes this will resonate with all kinds of art enjoyers, as anybody can walk away with their own print.
“It’s a conversation that we’re always having,” Westerlund said. “How can we innovate to make art, to meet people where they are and to engage them in that conversation around the art?”
Video by Collin Snyder | Asst. Video Editor
Published on February 11, 2026 at 10:57 pm