Hyun Sook Kim

HYUN SOOK KIM (she/her/hers) is Professor of Costume Design and MFA Costume Design Graduate Advisor in the department. The full first name is ‘Hyun Sook,’ the last name is ‘Kim.’ She holds MFA terminal degree in Costume Design from U of Illinois at Urbana Champaign - Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and MA at U of Illinois at Chicago, and BA from Korea University in Seoul. As a career educator and designer with over 35 years’ experience, Kim taught at Korea National U of Arts, Chung-Ang U, Ball State 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 designs for the mega-scale musical with over 70 cast, The Last Empress (Empress Myeongseong), have 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 has celebrated the long-run success to the present. Across the nation, Kim has designed for the NYC Pan Asian Repertory, the New York State LORT Capital Repertory Theatre, The Human Race Theatre, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, East West Players, among others. Her designs have received laudatory reviews from The New York Times and many theatre critics. Internationally, Kim has presented her costume designs in the prominent exhibitions in PQ (Prague Quadrennial), WSD (World Stage Design), and International Costume Association Exhibit, etc. Her costume designs were selected and presented in Costume in the Turn of the Century 1990-2015 at the A. A. Bakhrushin Theatre Museum at Moscow and in World Stage Design 2022 at Calgary, also in World Stage Design 2009 and 2017. Particularly in Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, Kim’s works have been selected for the National Exhibition in 1999, 2019 and 2023. Also, Kim has been presenting her creative Art-To-Wear works in various International Fashion-Art Exhibitions for a long time. Kim has won ‘Good Design Award’ for her Art-To-Wear work by presenting the currency costume materials in the costume art. Recently in 2024, Kim’s work has been selected in Critical Costume 2024 - 'Got Fiction? Whatever the Medium: Costume is the Character,' hosted by the UCLA David C. Copley Center for the Study of Costume Design. 

As a professor and artist, Kim is keenly interested in current trends and cultural developments in the field of world costume design and technology to enrich the design education from the diverse creativity based on critical thinking to the most current technology with a variety of materials. As an 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 soulful human beings and professionals who can eventually fulfill their life and artistry.

Kim is an active member of national USITT, international OISTAT, Performance Design Costume Commission, Costume Society of America, and The Korean Society of Costume. She is an ardent advocate of BIPOC theatre movement.

 

Critical Costume 2024
USA Prague Quadrennial 2023
CSUF News
Daily Titan
Broadwayworld
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The LA Korean Daily  
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