So Yeon Park is an interdisciplinary performance artist and an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.  She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at The Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio) where she studied Performance/Installation, Time-based Media and Community-based Art with Ann Hamilton, Johannes Birringer, Mary Jo Bole, and Dan Boord. Park holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts (B.F.A) in Arts and Crafts from Seoul Women's University (Seoul, Korea) and a second B.F.A. degree in sculpture/ ceramics from California College of the Arts (Oakland and San Francisco, California).

With her eclectic background in both traditional and nontraditional artforms, Park established herself in the Collaborative Media Lab Projects at Ohio State University, and began to develop and produce various solo performances and site –specific installations in Ohio and California. For the last five years, she has been creating performative community-based art with various populations in diverse cultural venues.
From 2006 to 2007 she successfully conducted her first community-based project series, “Storytelling and Listening Series I-IV” with international communities including indigenous Canadians, American at risk youth, and Korean women. She is currently completing work on the “P.E.A.R.L” project with current and former female inmates of the Topeka Correctional Facility in Topeka, Kansas.  This three-year project will be concluded in 2010.

Park’s work has been presented at the Fado Performance Art Centre in Toronto, the Banff Centre (also in Canada), the Sculpture Centre in Cleveland, Chameleon Arts Youth Development Consortium in Kansas City, the Lawrence Arts Center, the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence and The National Art Studio in Changdong, and Seoul Museum of Art, both in Korea.

Park was born in Pusan, Korea and raised in Seoul, Korea. She is currently living in Lawrence, Kansas with her dog, Charlie Park and teaching Drawing and Performance Art in the Expanded Media program at the University of Kansas.

>> Click to See Artist's Statement