ADVOCACY

For context, please read:

"California School Shutters Exhibition After Altering 'Political' Art," by Matt Stromberg, Hyperallergic, 9 October 2025

"Pepperdine Administrators Shut Down Weisman Exhibition After Censoring Artwork," by Henry Adams, Pepperdine University Graphic, 10 October 2025

"Art as Protest: Students Respond to Campus Censorship with Creative Expression," by Haylie Ross, Pepperdine University Graphic, 11 October 2025

From: Bryan Keene <bryan.bryank@gmail.com>

Date: Sun, Oct 12, 2025 at 7:03 AM

Subject: Urgent Concern Over Censorship at the Weisman Art Museum

To: jim.gash@pepperdine.edu <jim.gash@pepperdine.edu>, <pr@pepperdine.edu>

Cc: <lauren.cosentino@pepperdine.edu>, lee.kats@pepperdine.edu <lee.kats@pepperdine.edu>, <jay.brewster@pepperdine.edu>, nicole.singer@pepperdine.edu <nicole.singer@pepperdine.edu>, <chris.doran@pepperdine.edu>, Larry C. Keene <redacted for privacy>

Urgent Concern Over Censorship at the Weisman Art Museum

To President Gash and Board of Regents of Pepperdine University:

I write to you on the Sabbath because of the profound importance of this matter. I wish to express my grave concern regarding the recent censorship of artworks at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, and to urge the University to take immediate action to restore integrity to its artistic and academic mission.

I am a third-generation Pepperdine alumnus (’02)—one of over ten graduates in my family—and a former adjunct professor who taught at Seaver College for nearly a decade. My first job in the art world was at the Weisman, where I worked as a museum attendant. Along a parallel trajectory to teaching at Pepperdine, I served at the J. Paul Getty Museum, first as an educator (2006–2010) and then as a curator (2011–2020). Presently, I am a professor at Riverside City College, where I have embraced the courage and calling of teaching that was first kindled in me at Pepperdine. In 2019, I attended President Gash’s inauguration in full academic regalia among the faculty, together with my grandfather, Rev. Dr. Laurence C. Keene, professor emeritus of sociology, who taught for over forty years from the Los Angeles campus to Malibu. He is copied here.

My professional life has been shaped by the conviction that museums are not neutral spaces, as scholar LaTanya Autry reminds us: they are civic institutions accountable to the public good, and their credibility rests on ethical stewardship, intellectual independence, and respect for artists. Additionally, all art has always been political, by reflecting society, questioning or upholding power structures, amplifying marginalized voices, or confronting injustice. Through engagement, art educates, inspires, and transforms.

The recent censorship of artworks at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art represents a profound betrayal of Pepperdine’s academic mission, its Christian values, and its stated commitment to diversity and global leadership. The justification offered—that nonprofit status forbids the display of art with political overtones—is both legally baseless and intellectually indefensible. Every major university museum in this country operates under the same 501(c)(3) status and continues to show art that grapples with politics, identity, and justice. Displaying an artist’s work does not constitute institutional endorsement; suggesting otherwise reflects a profound misunderstanding of both art and education.

Art exists to provoke thought, to challenge assumptions, and to call us to listen, wrestle, and grow. That Pepperdine would silence art centered on listening, cross-cultural dialogue, and community care should trouble every member of our community. And let us be honest about what this action represents: white administrators censoring art about immigration—created by artists of color—at a Christian university in 2025. This act is not prudence but moral cowardice. It betrays both the Gospel’s call to hospitality and the University’s mission to prepare students for service, purpose, and leadership in a diverse and global community.

The University’s own explanation, that the exhibition was “not part of the academic enterprise” because it did not include work by Pepperdine students or faculty, is demonstrably false. The exhibition’s wall text, approved by the museum and Seaver College, clearly states: “As part of the development of this exhibition, the museum partnered with faculty in Studio Art and the Social Action and Justice Program to conduct research on image description, an accessibility strategy for sharing works of art with visitors who are blind or low vision.” That cross-disciplinary collaboration was funded by a university grant and involved student researchers. To deny that this exhibition was an academic project is a willful misrepresentation of fact.

Moreover, the reporting structure that enabled this misrepresentation is precisely the problem. Under the current arrangement, the museum director reports to the managing director of the Center for the Arts, who reports to the executive director for Advancement Administration, who reports to the vice president for Advancement and chief development officer, who reports to the executive vice president and chief operating officer. This chain of command places curatorial and academic decisions under administrative and fundraising oversight rather than academic governance. As a result, Advancement officers exercised authority over the Weisman Museum—an arrangement that would be unthinkable at any peer institution.

According to multiple student accounts, the museum’s reporting structure contributed to a series of troubling events. Students witnessed senior administrators intervene directly in the exhibition, expressing visible discomfort with certain works and directing staff to remove or obscure elements. Elana Mann’s work included a short, factual video documenting sculptural installations, with captions noting historical events. The video included the phrase “No aceptaremos un América racista [We won’t accept a racist America],” a moral declaration against racism that should have resonated with the Pepperdine’s Christian and educational mission. Students overheard senior administrators describing the video as “very left and political,” and questions were raised about the lack of opposing political content before the video was turned off.

The censorship extended to works by artists of color, specifically the binational collaborative AMBOS (Art Made Between Opposite Sides), whose work engaged themes of care, migration, and cross-border empathy. In one of the censored pieces, the artists embroidered messages such as “Save the Children” and “Abolish ICE” as part of a community-based project involving over 240 participants from Los Angeles, San Diego, and Tijuana. By censoring their work and preventing visitor interaction, the University has undermined the project’s very purpose: fostering empathy, connection, and civic engagement across borders.

Such interference is deeply concerning. Students witnessed professional boundaries being disregarded: altering or disabling an artist’s work without consultation violates the standards of the American Alliance of Museums and breaches the college’s exhibition agreement. Observing these actions at the highest levels of administration, and in front of student workers, raises serious questions about governance, leadership, and the educational integrity of the museum.

Several leading arts organizations—including the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG), the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC), and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM)—establish that museums, including those at private universities, must uphold curatorial independence, academic freedom, and ethical standards in the care, display, and interpretation of artworks. These guidelines emphasize that museum decisions should be guided by professional expertise, transparency, and accountability to the public and the academic community, not by administrative or fundraising pressures. Interfering with exhibitions, altering or removing artworks without consultation, or censoring content violates these best practices, undermines the educational mission, and compromises trust in the institution. The National Coalition Against Censorship further stresses that museums facing controversy should prioritize adherence to professional standards and community engagement rather than capitulate to political or ideological pressure. Together, these standards make clear that the reported actions at the Weisman Museum conflict with widely recognized ethical and professional norms in the museum field.

Other university art museums provide clear examples of how to navigate politically charged content responsibly. The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) led a coalition of university museums across the country in a civic engagement campaign ahead of the 2024 election, fostering voter participation while remaining nonpartisan. UMMA’s work demonstrates that academic museums can engage civic and social issues without compromising their integrity, educating students and communities in the process. Pepperdine’s administrators could and should have followed a model like this, which respects both artistic freedom and institutional mission.

I urge you to take immediate steps to restore integrity to the University’s artistic and academic mission:

• Listen to the many students, faculty, and staff who have been impacted by the decision to censor art and exhibition content. Make space for students to express their hurt, frustration, fears, and hopes for healing.

• Watch Elana Mann's censored video, Call to Arms 2015-2025. Actually spend 19 minutes to watch the video.

• Get to know AMBOS. Spend time learning about their work.

• Publicly acknowledge that the censorship of these works was wrong and inconsistent with Pepperdine’s values and educational goals.

• Reinstate the exhibition in full, accompanied by a clear statement affirming that artistic expression does not equate to institutional endorsement.

• Reform the governance and reporting structure of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum so that it is housed under Academic Affairs, as is standard practice for university art museums nationwide, rather than under Advancement or External Relations. The Weisman’s proper place is within the University’s intellectual and educational framework, guided by faculty, curators, and scholars—not by marketing or donor relations.

Finally, I encourage all arts alumni to write and express their concern regarding these events. Our collective voices can help ensure that Pepperdine upholds its mission, respects its artists, and educates students in a manner consistent with the values of free expression, social responsibility, and critical thinking that are at the core of an Art History or Humanities education.

Censoring the arts harms us all. It diminishes our students, our faculty, our reputation, and the very moral imagination that higher education and Christian education exist to serve.

I implore you to lead with courage, humility, and faith. Listen. Restore what has been lost.

Sincerely,
Dr. Bryan C. Keene (’02)

cc:
James A. Gash, President
Jay Brewster, Provost and Chief Academic Officer
Lauren Cosentino, Vice President for Advancement and Chief Development Officer 

Lee Kats, Dean of Seaver College
Christopher Doran, President, Seaver Faculty Association
Nicole Singer, Executive Director of Advancement Administration

My collaborative research investigates how social media can illuminate structural inequities in museum workplaces and help guide justice-oriented change. Working with colleagues, we use Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) to analyze posts from the Change the Museum Instagram account, which documents observed and personal experiences of discrimination within U.S. museums.

The first study, “Change the Museum: Initial Analysis of Social Media Posts Reflecting on Museum Workplace Experiences,” focused on posts from June–July 2020, the account’s launch period. It revealed strong associations between positional influence, microaggressions, and race, while also distinguishing between observed and personal experiences. Observed posts emphasized ignorance and leadership behaviors, whereas personal accounts revealed patterns tied to gender, employment, and retaliation—underscoring the importance of combining public observation with firsthand testimony to understand the full scope of workplace issues.

Expanding this analysis, “Change the Museum: Examining Social Media Posts on Museum Workplace Experiences to Support Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Efforts” (ICQE 2022) examined six months of posts, identifying statistically significant shifts in discourse between June and December 2020. It showed persistent linkages between BIPOC experiences and institutional factors such as leadership, employment, and wages, pointing to entrenched patterns of inequity across the field.

The most recent publication, “Leveraging Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) to Identify Focus Areas for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Efforts in Museum Workplace Contexts” (2023), extended the dataset to a full year of posts. This study demonstrated how ENA can visualize the intersectional nature of injustice across identity categories and workplace hierarchies, providing data-driven insights to inform policy development and systemic change.

Together, these projects model how computational ethnography and digital discourse can be leveraged to advance equity and accountability in the museum sector.

Publications

Espino, D. P., & Keene, B. C. (2021). Change the Museum: Initial Analysis of Social Media Posts Reflecting on Museum Workplace Experiences. In Advances in Quantitative Ethnography (ICQE 2021).

Espino, D. P., Keene, B. C., & Werbowsky, P. (2023). Change the Museum: Examining Social Media Posts on Museum Workplace Experiences to Support Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Efforts. In A. Ruis & S. Schwendimann (Eds.), Advances in Quantitative Ethnography (ICQE 2022) (pp. 331–346). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28221-8_20

Espino, D. P., Keene, B. C., & Werbowsky, P. (2023). Leveraging Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) to Identify Focus Areas for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Efforts in Museum Workplace Contexts. In A. Ruis & S. Schwendimann (Eds.), Advances in Quantitative Ethnography (pp. 290–303). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47014-1_20