Egg with a Story: A fundraiser for the Rick Berwick Community Spirit Award
Most people think of eggs as a breakfast food, but to Viktoriya Kim an egg is a blank canvas begging to be adorned. Her passion is to transform ostrich, goose and duck eggs into everything from gilded carriages to ornate teapots using paper prints, acrylic paints, Swarovski stones, beads and different kinds of mediums and bonds.
“What I love about making egg art is that whenever you have an idea, or are inspired, you are breathing life into these eggs with those ideas, almost like a rebirth!” says the graduate of CapU’s program, who studied egg art under Kim Kyung Ah, the president of the Korean Egg Art Guild.
Kim’s unique egg art will be on display at Capilano University on Wednesday, October 9 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Birch Building atrium. The Egg with a Story exhibition is a fundraiser for the recently established Rick Berwick Community Spirit Award, which supports students in CapU’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program who demonstrate community engagement and involvement.
The egg artist first met Dr. Rick Berwick, a highly regarded sociolinguist and instructor at Capilano University, as a student in the University’s EAP program. A strong proponent of community engagement in intercultural learning, Berwick was Kim’s instructor for a course where students practise their English skills while volunteering in the community.
Kim loved the experience so much that she became a regular volunteer in the morning breakfast program at the Collingwood Neighbourhood House, cooking and providing homeless people with fresh, homemade food.
“It was Rick who introduced me to what volunteerism means,” says Kim. “He was an inspiring volunteer and a man with a big, kind selfless heart, who helped many people.”
When Berwick passed away on June 3, 2019 his family established an award for EAP students in his name. Kim immediately wanted to contribute through sharing her art. Donations received at the exhibition will go directly to the award.
“I think, through volunteering, all the bright and positive aspects of anyone's personality can be revealed,” says Kim. “Volunteering gives people the feeling of diversified growth, and the sense that they are doing something significant for society and those in need.”
“For me, the establishment of the Richard Berwick Community Spirit Award is an embodiment of Rick's wish to make this world if not perfect, then at least a little bit better.”
Submitted by: Shannon Colin