Celebrating the life and legacy of Tejano music icon Selena Quintanilla, artifacts from the late singer are on display in a new Grammy Museum pop-up exhibit titled “Selena: From Texas to the World.” This marks the first time artifacts are on official display outside of the Selena Museum in her hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas.

The exhibit featured her personal items, iconic outfits, instruments played by her family and her two Grammy Awards, which she received for Best Mexican-American Performance in 1994 and Lifetime Achievement. The displays were also curated in collaboration with Selena’s sister, Suzette Quintanilla. 

To commemorate the exhibit’s opening Jan. 15, a screening of Netflix’s three-part documentary series “Selena y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy,” which was released last November, was held at the museum, alongside a panel discussion with Los Dinos band members and the documentary filmmakers.

“The turnout we see is just proof that her story is still so relatable and so important now,” said Kelsey Goelz, a curator at the Grammy Museum and USC alum. “It’s inspirational and influential, and hopefully you’ll leave a fan if you weren’t a fan before, because the music is also so timeless.”

Goelz said the Grammy Museum has wanted to curate a Selena exhibit since its creation in December of 2008, but it was only about a year ago when the museum was finally able to connect with Selena’s family and begin working to launch the exhibit.

“Learning that they were working on a new documentary and going into the archives, it just felt like the perfect moment,” Goelz said.

“Selena: From Texas to the World” features some of the singer’s renowned outfits, like the black and white striped jacket she wore on the cover of her 1992 album “Entre A Mi Mundo” and the outfit she wore on the cover of her 1994 album “Amor Prohibido.” The museum also displays the white beaded Lillie Rubin gown Selena wore to the 1994 Grammy Awards.

Other artifacts in the exhibit include Selena’s microphone — still marked with her red lipstick — hand-drawn fashion designs from her teenage years and her personal cell phone.

“The goal was always to do a deep dive into Selena’s career, highlighting Tejano music [and] the people that she made music with, which were her family members and some collaborators,” Goelz said. “You get to see the full range of Selena on stage and off stage. And through our conversation with Suzette, she really emphasized that that was the same person.”

The Quintanilla family opened the Selena Museum in Texas in 1998, three years after the singer’s death. Goelz said the Grammy Museum was careful to select items to include in its exhibit that wouldn’t detract from the experience of those visiting the Corpus Christi museum. 

Goelz said it was important to her to connect Los Angeles’ large Selena fanbase with the artist’s personal items, especially for fans unable to travel to Texas easily.

“To be able to bring those items here to make [fans’] journey a little shorter … felt really important to her legacy,” Goelz said. “These are people who have passed down her music to their families and kept her spirit alive over 30 years.” 

The exhibit opened Jan. 15, and Goelz said the museum had a busy first weekend with long lines of fans waiting to enter the museum.

“We were thrilled to welcome all these fans, and you could tell people were really excited to see it and willing to wait a little longer in line to see these items, to see some video footage they might not have seen before,” Goelz said.

Another interactive element of the exhibit is a fan wall, where museum visitors can leave notes on white flower Post-its designed by Suzette Quintanilla. Goelz said the museum is keeping the notes and plans to send some of them to the Quintanilla family when the exhibit closes.

“It’s fun to make it a two-way conversation, where they can also say some words and leave something behind,” Goelz said. “With someone as impactful as Selena and someone who has touched so many lives, we knew that that was something we wanted to do for this exhibit.”

Goelz said that while opening exhibits is always special, hosting the Quintanilla family made the opening even more notable. Family members participated in a panel discussion during the exhibit’s opening reception.

“To have them here, so emotional and so warm and so generous with what they were able to give us in terms of time and artifacts, it was just so a day full of pride and lots of love,” Goelz said.

“Selena: From Texas to the World” will be on display until March 16 at the Grammy Museum.