- September 28, 2024
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The Museum of Arts and Sciences is looking to enter a new era — one where instead of being a "hidden gem," the community knows it as a "crown jewel."
On Saturday, Sept. 14, at the museum's annual Passport to Florida event, Ormond Beach philanthropists Cici and J. Hyatt Brown announced a surprise endowment totaling $150 million, the largest gift to be ever granted to the museum. The endowment — which includes $75 million for a 3-to-1 match in the community — will facilitate the construction of a new 60,000-square-foot, two-story building on the 60 acres owned by MOAS at 352 S. Nova Road in Daytona Beach.
MOAS Executive Director Tabitha Schmidt said this is a rare and special occurrence.
"If you think about the history of museums and you think about how the great ones really got started, or really made a lasting impact, are fixtures in the community — it's because of people like the Browns," Schmidt said.
The Browns are longtime supporters of MOAS and have witnessed the museum's evolution over the past 50 years.
Cici Brown started volunteering at the museum in 1972 as a member of the Junior League of Daytona Beach, one year after MOAS opened its doors. She fell in love with museum work and stayed involved ever since.
"We have seen the museum change dramatically over the years, and supported it in a lot of ways," Cici Brown said.
MOAS is in process of completing its new strategic master plan, and a year ago, Cici Brown, who serves on the museum's executive committee, started speaking with her husband about the museum's needs and future.
Their endowment, coined the "Crown Jewel Campaign, isn't the Browns' first big initiative with MOAS. In 2015, they gifted MOAS with over 400 paintings for the creation of the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art. Over the years, they have donated hundreds of more paintings, all depicting Florida.
"We have been part of the community and we feel an obligation to reinvest in an area where we have enjoyed the life of us, and our children, and being involved in all sorts of good and wonderful things, the museum being one," Hyatt Brown said.
As people move here from other states, they are looking to experience local art and culture, Hyatt Brown said. But one problem is that MOAS is not very visible from Nova Road.
Hence, the mission to change that.
Schmidt said the board wants MOAS to not just be a hub in the community, but be an anchor. In surveys conducted through the strategic plan process, and anecdotally told to MOAS employees, visitors constantly said that the museum was a hidden gem in the community.
"After a while, you're just like, 'Wow, this is a real problem,'" Schmidt said. "So, great that we're a gem ... but hidden? Not so much."
The new building will anchor the new vision of the museum, she added. It will have visibility on Nova Road and have synergy between the existing Cici and Hyatt Brown museum.
"We'll start to see the entire 60 acres as the museum," Schmidt said.
The plans for the building are still in the initial stages, and no final decisions have been made on what collections it will house. But, some ideas include moving the permanent art and history collection that is currently in the back of the main building and housing the temporary traveling exhibits.
"The current museum has, our chief curator estimates, about 30% of our collection on view," Schmidt said. "... That is very, very unusual in the museum world. Typically, you see somewhere between maybe, at the most 5%-7%."
In the new building, MOAS would like to rotate the permanent collection more often to tell more stories.
Improving the children's museum is also a goal, Cici Hyatt said.
The new building will also include a new black box theater with seating for more than 200. The Hyatts' endowment will also help MOAS renovate its main building.
MOAS is aiming to break ground in 2026.
But first, as part of the Hyatts' matching campaign, the museum is looking to raise $25 million. Anyone interested in helping can reach out to the fundraising department at [email protected]. There will also be naming opportunities in the future.
Schmidt said the Hyatts' endowment is a "transformational gift." She has worked in museums before that have gone through a similar campaign.
"I've seen how museums with a project like this can rise to the next level, can do more, can have more impact in the community, and I think that's probably the most exciting thing for me because I've seen it," she said.
Government used to fund cultural and educational initiatives for museums, but that's not so common these days, Hyatt Brown said.
"Museums across all the United States are having great difficulties economically because the way that museums have been operated in the past, is not the way they have to be operated in the future," Hyatt Brown said.
There are people who have lived for years in Daytona Beach and never visited the museum, Cici Brown said. They don't know where it's located.
"That sounds hard to believe, but it's true," she said. "... It's the hidden gem becoming a crown jewel. We want it to be the crown jewel and that's our goal."
