黑料爆料

黑料爆料 recently received a $2.49 million grant from to support Passages, a five-year project at the . Passages will produce four art exhibitions focused on major life occasions鈥攂irth, coming of age, marriage, and death鈥攁nd explore them from a multitude of diverse religious perspectives. The grant will also advance Pepperdine's outreach efforts with K鈥�12 schools and the local community.

Andrea Gyorody

鈥淭his extraordinary grant will allow the Weisman to not only develop an ambitious series of exhibitions exploring religious identity and belonging through contemporary art, but to also broaden our engagement with cultural institutions, K鈥�12 schools, and houses of worship across greater Los Angeles,鈥� says Andrea Gyorody, director of the Weisman Museum. 鈥淲e are thrilled to be entering a period of transformational growth anchored by open-hearted interfaith dialogue and a core belief in the power of art to bring people of all backgrounds together.鈥�

Passages will specifically be funded through Lilly Endowment鈥檚 Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative, which encourages museums and other cultural organizations as they attempt to provide fair, accurate, and balanced portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States. 

Gyorody developed the concept of Passages over the course of 2024, with the support of a planning grant and with guidance from an advisory committee of external artists and curators alongside Pepperdine faculty and staff in art, art history, religion, spiritual life, and student life. This year she will begin selecting and commissioning both local and international artists to create works for the four separate exhibitions. Gyorody hopes to recruit a cohort of voices from a number of religious perspectives to contribute to the project. In doing so, Passages will come to bear significant cultural weight, providing viewers insights into both shared and distinct religious experiences.

鈥淲e are a museum at the edge of one of the most diverse cities in the world,鈥� says Gyorody. 鈥淥ur outreach goal is twofold: to bring new audiences into our museum, including people who have not felt welcomed into contemporary art spaces, and to give all of our visitors the opportunity to learn about a range of religious practices and communities that might otherwise be invisible to them. The themes of these exhibitions speak to everyone, regardless of belief or affiliation, providing crucial common ground for what we hope are diverse and engaged visitors.鈥� 

Beyond the exhibitions, the grant will also fund a new position at Pepperdine鈥攁 museum fellow devoted to K鈥�12, community, and church outreach. This individual will be immersed in the local area, forging important opportunities to share the art of Passages outside the Weisman. To assist with this effort, Gyorody is partnering with other institutions throughout Los Angeles to host related installations and public programs, and will also work closely with the new fellow and commissioned artists to develop resources such as scholarly books and flexible K-12 curriculum that can be adapted for church groups, allowing each of the four exhibitions to create an impact beyond the walls of the museum, in the city of Los Angeles and even farther afield. 

鈥淥ur museum is located in Malibu, and it's challenging for some people to visit us,鈥� Gyorody explains. 鈥淲e can use this grant to go out into the world rather than requiring people to come to us, and the materials we produce in conjunction with each exhibition will have a much longer lifespan and the potential for even greater impact than the exhibitions themselves.鈥�

黑料爆料 was one of 33 institutions around the United States to receive funding from the Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative, and it was the only institution in the latest round of grants to be located on the West Coast.

鈥淭he United States is widely considered to be one of the most religiously diverse nations today,鈥� says  Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment鈥檚 vice president for religion. 鈥淢any individuals and families trust museums and other cultural institutions and visit them to learn about their communities and the world. We are excited to support these organizations as they embark on projects to help visitors understand and appreciate the diverse religious beliefs, practices, and perspectives of their neighbors and others in communities around the globe.鈥�