The Sejong Cultural Society website (http://sejongculturalsociety.org/) offers many resources in order “to advance awareness and understanding of Korea's cultural heritage amongst people in the United States by reaching out to the younger generations through contemporary creative and fine arts” as stated in its mission. The Sejong Cultural Society is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago and has sponsored competitions in three areas of Korean culture: writing, music, and composition.
The writing competition consists of writing a sijo or responding to a selected work of Korean literature. The music competition requires one to download a piece of Korean music composition and playing the music on violin or piano. Contestants perform live at the University of Illinois of Chicago’s Performing Arts Center. As for the composition, this contest appears to occur every 3-4 years and requires a submission “for 2-5 instruments chosen from violin, cello, piano, flute, and clarinet that can strongly convey Korean themes and is no more than twelve minutes in length.”
The website is easy to navigate. The top navigation bars contain the three sponsored competitions. There is a resource tab with a focus on the sijo. Teachers and students interested in learning how to write a sijo will find plenty of examples on this ancient Korean poetry form.
.
