Poem-Dispensing Wood Gumball Machine Comes to Museum for Art in Wood

-Courtesy of En Route Marketing
each “gumball” will feature an original poem composed by LindoYes (feature photo by Angel Perez)

On April 27, from 6 to 9 p.m., the Museum for Art in Wood (141 N. 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106) and acclaimed poet, multi-platform artist founder LindoYes, host The Gumball Machine Celebration, a special event unveiling a poetry-dispensing wooden gumball machine sculpture. The machine’s unveiling will be commemorated with music performances and spoken word readings by local artists, with light refreshments served by Harper’s Garden. The new Gumball Machine sculpture will be on display and free to view at the Museum for Art in Wood from April 27th to December 31st, 2024.  

The one-of-a-kind wooden gumball machine is a fully mechanized, robot-shaped sculpture created by local artist Jesse Rinyu, which dispenses unique walnut shell capsules made by artist Jennifer Eckenrode. Each walnut can be opened to reveal a two-sided slip of paper with an original poem composed by LindoYes and information for free local social services and mental health hotline numbers. The walnuts are returned by placing them into the robot’s mouth, where it’ll fall into an internal storage space. They are then refilled with a fresh poem and added back into rotation. 

The sculpture was created through The Gumball Machine Project, a community-wide program created by LindoYes in 2022 to support free access to the arts, poetry, and mental health care. He places repurposed traditional gumball machines in locations throughout Philadelphia and New Jersey, including Bok Building, The Painted Bride Arts Center, and The Philadelphia Liberation Center. Each machine is hand-painted and decorated by community members living near its location, and holds up to 200 capsules with unique poems. 

The new wood sculpture at Museum for Art in Wood marks an evolution in the Gumball Machine Project, deviating from the usual decorated repurposed machines to offer audiences a new experience. The Museum collaborated with LindoYes to secure partial grant funding from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and, through a juried process, selected Rinyu to create the sculpture. 

“Working with the Museum for Art in Wood on the Poetry Gumball Machine Project has expanded the  possibilities of inter-community work and fostered unexpected conversations at the intersection of  public care, woodworking, and literary art in a creative environment,” said LindoYes. “Combining these  art forms together while addressing accessibility to mental wellness is a very important aspect of this  ongoing project, which draws attention to an urgent social issue. Because admission to the Museum is  free to the public, offering the Poetry Gumball Machine as a part of the experience will allow art to  teach us about caring for others.”

Each gumball machine has been revealed with a community event and talk-back to further foster creativity and engagement through poetry. The Museum for Art in Wood’s unveiling event will continue this tradition with an evening of music, poetry, and conversation centered around art and mental health. The event will feature performances by LindoYes, Philadelphia-based folk/R&B duo Dani & Joe, Willingboro, New Jersey R&B singer/songwriter Matthew Edwards, Philadelphia-based dream laborer and performance poet Marshall James Kavanaugh, Delaware County-based dynamic poet, speaker, and mental health advocate Josh Smith, and author and poet Patricia Wood. Doors to the Museum open at 6 p.m., with performances starting at 6:30 p.m. 

Throughout the rest of 2024, the Museum will host a series of free community events and programming around the Gumball Machine. This includes afternoon engagements connecting all the gumball machine community hosts, family-friendly hands-on crafting activities with take-home art supply kits, and youth poetry workshops. The Gumball Machine Project is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. The unveiling event on April 27th is partially supported by Harper’s Garden.