Hamden | Arts & Culture | New Haven Free Public Library | Visual Arts | Korean American Society of CT
Kun-Yong Kim and her daughter, teen card contest winner Jessica Park. Kim, who immigrated from Korea, now works in a genetics lab at Yale. Lucy Gellman Photos.
The girl sits with her back squared against the wall, a book propped open in her lap. From above, the squiggles on the page are illegible—but they’re enough to make her smile, and that feels like an unexpected gift. Around her, book covers float through the air: a dove with an olive branch in its mouth; two characters wilting under a round, hot sun; a dragon filling the frame with bright green color. The letters R E A D, all rendered in primary colors, stretch out above them.
That design, titled “Manga Reader,” belongs to Jessica Park, an eighth-grade student at the Foote School who recently won the New Haven Free Public Library’s (NHFPL) card contest in the teen category. Since the library announced its winners in late August, Park has used that news as a visual launchpad, creating a spinoff contest for her peers at the Korean American Society of Connecticut.
“Hearing that our little contest inspired someone to do this is the coolest thing,” said NHFPL Public Services Administrator Rory Martorana, who shouted out the work of the library’s circulation and marketing departments in making the contest happen. “That makes me so happy. It means it really meant something.”
The other winners of the contest include Katrina M. in the children’s category and Neena Patel in the adult category (view all of the winning designs here). Patrons can get a new card at the circulation desk of any branch library. Images of all card entries, meanwhile, are playing in a slideshow on loop in Ives Squared.
“I wanted to just show someone calm and relaxing with a book,” said Park, who logged hundreds of hours in the library’s summer reading challenge, just as she did last summer. “Reading kind of calms me down after a long day.”
In part, that goes back to her love of the library itself. For years, she and her younger sister, Claire, have been coming to the Ives Main Branch, which rises regally from Elm Street just across from the New Haven Green. In that time, she’s developed a deep love for books, from Patricia Hruby Powell’s Loving v. Virginia to installments in the Hunger Games series.
She’s built relationships with staff members like Emily Raymond, teen librarian at the Ives Main Branch, and jumped into many of the free classes that the branch offers, like a crochet club that met over the summer (the library still offers many free classes in fiber arts; learn about those here) and an interactive booklet where she could log her summer reading hours.
So when she saw a notice for a card contest on one of her frequent trips to the space—and learned that she could submit a design online—she entered right away. Initially, she doubted that anything would come of it: it was the final day of the contest, and she had put the design together in under two hours, working to beat the deadline. After she submitted, she turned her attention to summer reading and preparing for the upcoming school year.
Behind the scenes, the enthusiasm about the card contest never stopped. In a phone call last week, Martorana remembered how library staff members struggled to narrow entries down to just a few beloved designs. Only after they had decided on six finalists—two in each category—did they open voting up to the public.
“We had so many entries and we wanted to show them all,” Martorana said. “Community is a big source of pride for us.”
Haerim Youn, Katelyn Nam and Jessica Park.
In August, Park was delighted when the library reached out to say she’d won, a victory that the organization later celebrated publicly on its Instagram. At home, her family celebrated the news with cake, a sweet and fitting follow-up to the trip to Ashley’s she’d won from the summer reading contest. As soon as she got the news, she started thinking about how to pass on the joy to members of her wider community.
“I’ve won other art contests before, but this one really felt special,” Park said. “As much as I like to read, I like drawing a lot more.”
“It was a big change,” said her mother, Kun-Yong Kim. “Jessica is a quiet girl. She doesn’t put herself in front of others. Now, it’s really changed! She’s got this proud feeling, this confident feeling.”
After thinking about how much the contest meant to her, she found a way to pass on the goodwill. Last month, she spearheaded a contest at the Korean American Society of Connecticut, where she’s been coming for volunteer hours since she was nine or 10. While the society has existed since 1957, the building became the group’s home in 2018.
Park, working with her peers, knew that she wanted the theme to be autumnal, to reflect the seasons that were changing both in New Haven and in Korea. She suggested creating work around Chuseok, a harvest festival (it is sometimes referred to as “Korean Thanksgiving,” said fellow student Haerim Youn, who makes the trip from Glastonbury to Hamden for the society every other week) held in early October.
The results, for which all entrants were ultimately awarded a ribbon and a gift card, become a gorgeous display of cultural pride. In one, from artist Katelyn Nan, two children play in front of a cottage, as a giant moon rises in the night sky behind them, and a rabbit rises on its hind legs to get a good look. In another, a young woman wears traditional hanbok, with her hair tied back in a tight, neat, braid. In her hands, she holds out a small plate with Songpyeon, a type of rice cake, usually with a sweet filling, eaten during Chuseok. In many of the works, vibrant fall foliage fills the pages, creating a flurry of orange and red leaves.
On a recent Tuesday, Park looked fondly over the designs, as fellow artists Youn and Katelyn Nan chatted at a table nearby. The room, which doubles as a community center for Korean American Society members, filled with the sweet, spice-kissed scent of pumpkin from a candle burning over in the corner. In the other room, the hum of conversation rose and fell as parents caught up after the workday.
Youn, who depicted a girl in a cafe, said she was glad to join in. In her piece, a slender woman looks out of frame with round, bright eyes, her hand hovering beside two small treats. In the background, there’s a temple surrounded by rust-colored leaves. The blur of the background creates depth and perspective.
“I got inspiration and tried to go by the theme, which was fall in Korea,” she said.
Parents at the society, meanwhile, are thrilled that the library’s contest has sparked one of their own, with a twist that amplifies and celebrates Korean heritage. After youth submitted to the contest, longtime society member Sang Jin Nam stepped forward to cover the cost of prizes, so that every entrant could get a gift card and a small blue ribbon. Nam also supports the society’s fledgling art club, which his daughter is just starting to get off the ground.
“It’s hard to get together and learn our own culture,” said former society president James Park. “People come here to learn and enjoy culture.”
“We can grow together,” Nam added.