The Future MOAS

For more than seventy years, the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach has served as a cultural cornerstone of central Florida, where art, history, and discovery converge. Now, MOAS is poised to enter its most transformative chapter yet, embarking on an ambitious expansion that will redefine the museum experience for generations to come. 

The Museum of Arts and Sciences started it’s life in this 250 sq-ft Quonset hut on White Street in Daytona Beach in 1955. Originally known as The Halifax Children’s Museum it became the organization we know today as MOAS in 1962 and moved to its present site off Nova Road in 1971.

Founded in 1954 as the Halifax Children’s Museum, it transformed into the Museum of Arts & Sciences a few years later to serve a wider audience. In time it expanded to include a planetarium in 1972. Over the decades, additions such as the L. Gale Lemerand Wing, and the Charles and Linda Williams Children’s Museum, have created a rich, multifaceted destination showcasing art, science and history on a ninety thousand square foot blueprint. 

A major catalyst for the museum’s next stage of growth is a generous $150 million-dollar gift from philanthropists Cici and Hyatt Brown, who have repeatedly shown their devotion to cultural enrichment. Their passion evolved through global travels in the 1960s that immersed their family in art and heritage across Europe, Asia, and Africa, inspiring their belief that art opens hearts and builds community. In the 1990s they began collecting Florida themed paintings, which became the collection that seeded the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art, opening to the public in 2012. Their latest gift further cements their legacy of art-driven community connection. 

About 250 invited guests gathered in a tent just outside the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art in Daytona Beach Saturday night for the museum's annual fundraiser.

This new funding will fuel several major initiatives transforming not only the museum buildings, but its entire six-decades mission. Under CEO Tabitha Schmidt, appointed in 2022, MOAS is pivoting away from showing off every artifact in storage to curating thematic, rotating exhibitions that tell compelling stories and invite deeper visitor engagement. Chief Curator Tamara Joy and her talented team will oversee this shift. The aim is to inspire curiosity, initiate conversations, and leave visitors with lasting emotional impressions. 

Daytona Beach Museum of Arts & Sciences Executive Director Tabitha Schmidt is going to be very busy the next few years as the main museum building is extensively renovated, and a new building is constructed near the western edge of Nova Road. Schmidt is pictured in the museum's display area that has a large collection of historic Coca-Cola items. Nigel Cook/News-Journal

Architectural plans for the new building envision dramatic changes. The Nova Road project will evolve into a welcoming entry pavilion that connects seamlessly with the Brown Museum of Art. The entire sixty-acre campus will be reimagined as one unified cultural environment, featuring walkable greens, gathering lawns, and outdoor programming zones. This strategy reframes the museum as an immersive place where architecture, public spaces and exhibitions collaborate. 

The 3 for 1 match campaign connected to the Browns’ gift invites the community to participate. With seventy-five million already pledged, the museum has launched what it calls the Crown Jewel Capital Campaign. The goal includes a sixty thousand square foot new construction next to the Brown Museum of Art along with renovation of existing buildings. When the campaign succeeds, the total investment will reach $150 million. 

This transformation is built around more than bricks and mortar. It is grounded in a philosophy that museums must forge emotional bonds, encourage immersive exploration, and provoke thoughtful exchange. Exhibits will be designed around themes and stories rather than being encyclopedic in order to spark return visits and deeper audience connections. 

Architectural renderings and master planning have already begun. Major construction is scheduled to begin in 2026, and completion is anticipated within 2-3 years. The project is being treated not as a simple renovation but as a reinvention of the museum’s identity. 

Illustrated renderings that explore different opportunities for some of the Museum of Arts & Sciences most treasured collections. Concept illustrations by Gensler.

Once underway, the museum will stand as Daytona Beach’s cultural lighthouse. What began as a local learning center seventy years ago has evolved into a thirty thousand object institution with natural history, an exhilarating planetarium, and a vast collection of art. The new era will build on that foundation by becoming a destination with dynamic indoor and outdoor experiences. For the local community and beyond, MOAS will be a place that educates, inspires, and entertains for generations! 

Led by new leadership with an intentional vision, energized by a transformational gift from longtime benefactors and strengthened by community involvement through matching and capital campaigns, MOAS is taking bold new steps into the future as it transforms from traditional collections into immersive thematic experiences set within a unified sixty-acre campus. It will reshape how museums interact with their communities. Soon MOAS will emerge not only as a regional attraction but as an emotionally resonant cultural hub built to foster curiosity, learning, and connection across generations.