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Images courtesy of the Museum of Latin American Art.

The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) announced this week that their exhibition, Transformations, has received a 2016 Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement for “A Museum Exhibit on a Limited Budget” from the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA).

TEA, an international non-profit association representing the world’s leading creators, developers, designers and producers of compelling places and experiences, introduced the THEA award in 1994. Recognized as the equivalent of an Academy Award in the themed entertainment industry, more than a hundred achievements from around the world are entered every year to compete for 12 to 18 awards.

The museum will be presented with the award on April 22 at the 23rd Annual Thea Awards Gala to be held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.

Curated by MOLAA Curator of Collections, Carlos Ortega, Transformations was displayed in MOLAA’s galleries in 2015 and told the stories of five Long Beach residents through video. Their transformative experiences included battling cancer, surviving incarceration and gang violence.

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From left: Carlos Ortega, MOLAA curator of collections, Juan Gonzalez, participant, Willie Quiñones, participant, Felicia Revero, participant, Rocio Villalobos, participant, Mick Victor, photographer, Lorena Mercado, participant and Kendell Carter, artist.

“In most art exhibits, the curator receives much of the glory,” Ortega said in a statement. “In the case of Transformations, the glory was, rather, the huge emotional connection between the public and the participants’ stories.”

Each storyteller selected works of art from MOLAA’s collection, to display on the walls as a representation of their emotional state before and after their transformative experience. The exhibition resonated with museum visitors on a personal level, so much so that it was extended by several months, according to MOLAA.

For more information about MOLAA, visit the website here

MOLAA is located at 628 Alamitos Avenue.

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Asia Morris is a Long Beach native covering arts and culture for the Long Beach Post. You can reach her @hugelandmass on Twitter and Instagram and at [email protected].