California Museum Director Resigns After University Removes “Political” Artwork

The director of an embattled university museum has resigned after artists accused the school administration of censoring an exhibition she curated. Andrea Gyorody stepped down as director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University, confirming to Hyperallergic that today would be her last day in the role.

Her resignation comes three weeks after the university administration decided to alter two works it considered “political” that were on view in the group show Hold My Hand in Yours, curated by Gyorody. The school then shuttered the exhibition six months early after several artists requested that their work be withdrawn from the show in protest.

Michael Friel, Pepperdine’s senior director of Communications and Public Relations, told Hyperallergic that Gyorody and the school had “mutually agreed” that she would step down. 

“The University thanks Dr. Gyorody for her leadership and contributions during her tenure,” the museum said.

The university had turned off Elana Mann’s video “Call to Arms 2015-2025” (2025), which documents 10 years of performances and protests featuring the artist’s arm-shaped megaphones. Administrators also turned over a small embroidered patch reading “Abolish ICE,” part of the large-scale collaborative sculpture “Con Nuestros Manos Construimos Deidades (With Our Hands We Build Deities)” (2023) by the group Art Made Between Opposite Sides (AMBOS).

“Because Pepperdine’s established practice with the Weisman Museum has been to avoid overtly political content consistent with the University’s nonprofit status, it removed these two pieces from display,” a university spokesperson told Hyperallergic at the time.

After the museum was shuttered, students, faculty, and alumni voiced their outrage. On Friday, October 17, faculty of the Fine Arts Division at Pepperdine’s Seaver College posted a statement affirming their “full and unwavering support for our students and their right to engage in creative inquiry without fear of censorship.”

“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,” the statement continued. “Suppressing artwork because it is perceived as ‘political’ undermines this mission and erodes trust in the academic process.”

On the evening of October 9, about 100 students gathered for an art night, making posters and signs which were then posted to a “Freedom Wall” at the school’s student center. 

The protest art will be used again next Wednesday, October 29, in a demonstration outside the Elkins auditorium, where faculty will be meeting to discuss recent events at the museum, according to Pepperdine senior Grace Bidewell. Mann said she plans to attend with her horns to amplify the students’ message. 

Bidewell, an art and sustainability double major, told Hyperallergic that the alteration of the artwork was at odds with Pepperdine’s Christian mission. 

“It doesn’t align with their beliefs as a school. Christ had the view that all beings were created equal. Having artwork that respects that view shouldn’t be a problem,” Bidwell said.

Bryan C. Keene, a third-generation Pepperdine alum who also taught art history there and had his first art world job as a museum attendant at the Weisman, echoed those sentiments in an open letter to Pepperdine’s president and board on October 12. 

“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,” Keene wrote. 

He also rejected the school’s argument that its nonprofit status prohibited the display of artwork with political content. “Displaying an artist’s work does not constitute institutional endorsement; suggesting otherwise reflects a profound misunderstanding of both art and education,” Keene said.

Gyorody became director of the Weisman in 2021, where she organized exhibitions on artists Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson, Jeni Spota C., Isabel Yellin, and Karl Haendel. She was previously assistant curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, where she co-curated Afterlives of the Black Atlantic, which received a 2020 Award for Curatorial Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators. 

“It’s a huge loss for the Pepperdine community and the larger LA art community. She’s a brilliant curator, art historian, writer, and thinker,” Mann told Hyperallergic. “There’s a sadness amongst students and faculty, but I hope it will spark meaningful change as to who ultimately decides what will go into the museum.”