Editor’s Note: In response to senior Pepperdine administrators censoring artwork at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art in early October, faculty from Seaver College’s Fine Arts Division crafted and signed off on the release of the following statement, first published on the @pepperdinestudioarts Instagram page. The statement will also be sent to the Seaver Faculty Senate.
Statement from the Fine Arts Division, Seaver College:
We, the faculty of the Fine Arts Division at Seaver College, affirm our full and unwavering support for our students and their right to engage in creative inquiry without fear of censorship. We also express our support for the artists whose work was included in Hold My Hand in Yours – particularly Elana Mann and AMBOS – whose pieces were censored, as well as for the artists who withdrew their work in solidarity. The events surrounding the removal of the Hold My Hand in Yours exhibition from the Weisman Museum of Art have deeply affected our students, who witnessed the silencing of research, artistic expression, and academic collaboration.
Art, at its core, is a vehicle for inquiry and a means of examining, questioning, and understanding the world around us. As educators and scholars, we believe that the freedom to explore complex and challenging ideas is central to the mission of a Christian liberal arts education such as Pepperdine University. Suppressing artwork because it is perceived as “political” undermines this mission and erodes trust in the academic process. That process depends on curiosity, experimentation, and trial and error, and when it is disrupted, the integrity of the arts as a discipline is compromised.
For the Fine Arts Division, and for many other divisions and departments across campus, the Weisman Museum of Art serves as an academic space – a classroom, a laboratory, and a site of active student research. Through programs such as the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP), Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internships, and a recent Cross-Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research (CDIUR) grant, students have engaged in projects that bridge academic disciplines. The museum has also hosted numerous Seaver class visits, including a recent tour in which 85 Natural Science students experienced the exhibition as part of their coursework. Most egregiously, with the closure of the exhibition, the student research conducted through a CDIUR entitled, “The Art of Accessibility,” alongside Hold My Hand in Yours is no longer visible, effectively erasing student research that embodies the museum’s academic mission and cross-disciplinary impact.
We stand firmly against acts of censorship that diminish the educational purpose of the arts at Pepperdine. We call for transparency, accountability, and a renewed institutional commitment to artistic and academic freedom. Above all, we affirm to our students that their voices matter, and that their creative and intellectual contributions are valued, protected, and vital to the life of this university.
Respectfully,
The Faculty of the Fine Arts Division
Seaver College, Pepperdine University
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