It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Eury Chang. Eury had been struggling against cancer for three years, and he passed away peacefully on March 22.
Husband to Robert Kardosh, Eury played a major role in the life of the gallery, both behind the scenes and in its public presentations. Friends of the gallery will remember his warm spirit, good sense of humour and great honesty, qualities that shone forth at the gallery’s many public receptions and private functions, which Eury always enlivened with his presence. As Bob’s partner for more than 20 years, Eury had a deep knowledge of Inuit art, contributing formidably his own appreciation and aesthetic points of view to the gallery’s direction and mission.
Eury’s greatest contributions were in his own specialized field of Canadian theatre studies. In his doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia and in his published works, Eury pioneered a new understanding of interdisciplinary Asian-Canadian theatre productions, highlighting both their aesthetic importance and their critical relevance to the country’s cultural, social, political and theatrical histories. Eury understood these works to be part of the broader emerging field of inter-cultural theatre studies, an area of inquiry he was equally committed to promoting and further theorizing as part of his academic practice. Eury was also a passionate teacher, and through his undergraduate university courses he shared his ideas with many younger students of theatre. Along with his own teachers, those students will be glad to know that in March 2023, Eury was awarded his PhD from UBC, becoming Dr. Chang.
A theatre practitioner himself with a background in contemporary dance and movement expression, Eury approached his academic work with a deep insight and respect for the creative artistic process. He wore other hats, too. For many years, Eury was the editor of the Dance Central, the in-house publication of the Dance Centre in Vancouver, publishing interviews with dozens of leading dance artists. Later he became the editor of the influential Rice Paper magazine, which worked both to promote and bring awareness to works by newer Asian Canadian artists and simultaneously to celebrate and honour the achievements of earlier generations of cultural creators and activists.
Eury will be greatly missed. It is a comfort to Robert and to Eury’s wider family that his friends and colleagues, all those whose lives he touched so deeply, will continue to remember his great spirit.
