Staff Spotlight: Jacquelyn Kim, Exhibitions Coordinator

A photo of Jacquelyn standing outdoors in front of a Christmas tree.

Jacquelyn Kim, Exhibitions Coordinator

Welcome back to our staff spotlight series! Over the next few weeks, we’ll catch up on featuring recent hires and new roles of staff in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library here at the University of Virginia.

As the exhibitions coordinator, Jacquelyn (she/they) helps to produce exhibitions that showcase the Library’s collections and assists with community engagement. She previously worked at Special Collections as the exhibitions assistant for two years and recently graduated from UVA with highest distinction in American studies and global development studies. Beyond the library, Jacquelyn enjoys cooking, foraging, and making pottery, and they plan to start an MLIS program in the near future.

What was your first ever job with books or libraries?

As a high school student, I volunteered at a local library branch to tutor kids in math and English. During my third year as an undergraduate student at UVA, I began working at Special Collections as a Wolfe Fellow, helping with social media and gaining hands-on experience working in an archive and with archival materials—and clearly I couldn’t get enough!

What was the first thing you collected as a child? What do you collect now? (oh, c’mon, admit it).

As a child, I had an impressive collection of Pokémon cards and erasers in odd shapes like animals, food, and flowers that I’ve since gifted and passed on to younger family members. Now, my apartment is full of books, CDs, and zines! A friend recently gifted me a beautiful zine about the history of mahjong, and that’s one of my new favorites.

Hopefully you’ve been roaming Grounds and Charlottesville a bit since your arrival. What’s your favorite new discovery other than Special Collections?

I’ve been in Charlottesville/at UVA for over 5 years now, but a couple of my favorite spots are The Beautiful Idea, a bookstore and community center on the Downtown Mall, and La Flor Michoacana, an ice cream shop! Around campus, the fruit trees in the gardens of the Academical Village are a hidden gem.

Tell us what excites you about your job?

I love how I get to do a deep dive into a new topic with every exhibition—I’m constantly learning something new! I’ve also been so grateful for opportunities to engage directly with community members who are assisting with curation and/or have contributed materials to our collections. Getting to hear firsthand the stories about objects included in our exhibitions and collections has been incredibly grounding.

If you could be locked in any library or museum for a weekend, with the freedom to roam, enjoy, and study to your heart’s content, which one would you choose?

I lived in Seoul for a bit and loved the many different collections at the National Museum of Korea, particularly of ceramics! I also recently learned about the Interference Archive based in New York, and I’d love to explore their collections of items related to social movements around the world.