Hyun Sook Kim

Associate Professor Hyun Sook Kim holds MFA terminal degree in Costume Design from U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, MA at U of Illinois at Chicago, and BA from Korea University in Seoul. As a long-experienced educator and designer, Kim has taught at Ball State U, Korea National U of Arts, Chung-Ang U, among others. She is internationally recognized for her outstanding costume designs in NYC, London, Toronto, LA, Tokyo, Osaka, Beijing and Seoul. Many of her designs have been seen in large-scale productions at prestigious international and national venues. Particularly, her design for the mega-scale musical, The Last Empress (Empress Myeongseong), has been presented at NY Lincoln Center, LA Kodak Theatre and Schubert Theatre, and Toronto Hummingbird Center, as well as in London’s West End. The musical will celebrate its 25th year’s anniversary of long-run success in next January. Across the nation, Kim has designed for the New York State LORT Capital Repertory Theatre, The Human Race Theatre, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre at New York City, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, among others. Her designs have received laudatory reviews including from The New York Times and many theatre critics. Internationally, Kim has presented her works in the prominent exhibitions such as PQ (Prague Quadrennial), WSD (World Stage Design), International Costume Association Exhibit, etc. Her costume designs have been selected in 2017 World Stage Design at Taipei, Taiwan, 2018 USA National USITT Design Expo, and 2019 USA Prague Quadrennial Exhibit. Kim has travelled to Prague Quadrennial in Summer 2019 as a part of USA national design team, with being awarded USITT International Committee Travel Grants. Also, Kim has been presenting her creative Art-To-Wear works in various International Fashion-Art Exhibitions for a long time. Recently, Kim has won ‘Good Design Award’ for her Art-To-Wear work “Flying” at the 2019 Annual International Fashion Exhibition, by utilizing the currency costume materials Thermoplastic fabric and LED lights. She has worked on translation and published a book, Costume Design, with her Korean colleagues in Seoul. In Summer 2020, Kim has designed costumes for SF Shakespeare Festival’s King Lear 2020, which is running via On-line LIVE Streaming under this COVID-19 Pandemic situation. At CSUF, she has been awarded 2018 Faculty Recognition for Scholarly and Creative Activity. Kim is an active member of national USITT, international OISTAT, Performance Design Costume Commission, Costume Society of America, and The Korean Society of Costume.

As an art educator, Kim is always excited to see her students growing to think out-of-box and reaching out of their scope. Her ultimate purpose is to dedicate to educating young artists to make them become soulful human beings and professionals, who can eventually fulfill their life and artistry.

Press:

USA Prague Quadrennial 2019
The LA Korean Daily
Broadwayworld
Theatre Bay Area: All The World’s A Virtual Stage for SF Shakes’ King Lear
Daily Titan