MUSEUM OF LATIN AMERICAN ART

The museum is located in the newly developing East Village Arts District of Long Beach, California. Between 1913 and 1918 the site that the museum now occupies was the home of Balboa Amusement Producing Company, then the world’s most productive and innovative silent film studio. Before there was a Hollywood, Balboa was the king of the silver screen, producing as much as 20,000 feet of negative film a week. The building currently being renovated as MoLAA’s Entertainment / Education / Special Event venue may have been part of the old Balboa film studio. MoLAA’s exhibition galleries, administrative offices and store are housed in what was once a roller skating rink known as the Hippodrome. Built in the late 1920s, after the film studios were gone, the Hippodrome was a haven for skaters for four decades. The building then served as a senior health center for fifteen years. The high vaulted ceilings and beautiful wooden floors were perfectly suited for the Hippodrome's final metamorphosis into the Museum of Latin American Art.