Cici and Hyatt Brown

Museum of Art

Florida Art and History Come Alive

ATTENTION: The Museum of Arts & Sciences and the Lohman Planetarium will resume regular Museum hours on Monday, October 14, including access to the Children’s Museum at MOAS.

*Please Note: The Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art at MOAS remains closed until further notice. Stay tuned for updates. 



The innovative Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art is home to the largest collection of Florida art in the world and features a rotating collection of 2,600 Florida-themed oil and watercolor paintings. The Museum's grand central gallery and mezzanine showcase the collection's signature pieces, while six smaller galleries feature beautiful changing exhibitions with Florida themes. A gift shop and a cafe add to the Brown Museum experience and make for the perfect day-long visit to the MOAS campus. Conference rooms with full meeting and presentation capabilities are available to the public on a rental basis. 
 

Currently on Display

AudubonAudubon's Birds of Florida
September 21 through March 2, 2025
Presented by Cici and Hyatt Brown

The Museum of Arts & Sciences invites you on an extraordinary journey through the original Birds of Florida as captured in the meticulously painted studies of John James Audubon (1785-1851), one of the most celebrated artists in American history. A masterpiece of printmaking, these exquisite, life-size illustrations are part of Audubon’s ground-breaking 435-count compendium

The Birds of America, the culmination of the artist’s ambition to paint every bird species in North America. As part of this twelve-year venture, Audubon organized a special expedition to Florida (1831-1832) in order to document the birds, and their habitats, unique to the U.S. Territory.

Audubon’s Birds of Florida presents nearly eighty original prints, paintings, and related artifacts, primarily drawn from the Cici and Hyatt Brown Collection, which focus on a selection of birds the artist saw or wrote about from Florida in Ornithological Biography, as well as the majority of birds he painted while in Florida or shortly thereafter. Audubon’s Florida quest began in St. Augustine in November 1831, where he was based for three months. From there, his crew traveled along the east coast of Florida, following rivers, lakes, and marshes in canoe, schooner, and skiff, exploring the St. Johns and Halifax Rivers. Locally, he spent time at Bulow Plantation and Spring Garden Plantation, now called DeLeon Springs. Suffering through swarms of mosquitos and wading through alligator-infested wetlands, the artist recorded bird species new to him, including the natural surroundings, which would make their way into the backgrounds of his realistically rendered subjects. In late April of 1832, Audubon boarded the U.S. Cutter Marion and headed to the Florida Keys, where he was enraptured by the variety and beauty, as well as vast numbers of bird life. At the end of May, the artist returned to Charleston to complete the drawings for many of the acclaimed works on display in this exhibition.

Audubon’s Birds of Florida is presented with the generous support of Cici and Hyatt Brown, whose transformational gift of original Audubon prints makes the MOAS Collection one of the finest in the country. The exhibition is an experiential companion to the sumptuously illustrated catalog,

Audubon’s Birds of Florida, written by guest curator Clay Henderson, environmental lawyer, historian, and President Emeritus of the Florida Audubon Society. Henderson’s deep scholarship of John James Audubon’s life and work, as well as his personal commitment to the study and preservation of Florida’s flora and fauna, lead us on a thoughtful expedition of our own. With a specific investigation into relevant conservation issues, this project brings an expanded interpretation of the complex legacy of J. J. Audubon, a brilliant, yet flawed, man of his time, who greatly advanced the world’s understanding of ornithological science and the interdependence of wildlife with the natural environment. John James Audubon’s Florida Expedition took him through several areas that are now part of the

Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail. The GFBWT consists of over 500 locations statewide, recognized as some of the best places in Florida to observe birds and wildlife. Managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the GFBWT allows today’s birders to follow in Audubon's footsteps and encounter many of the iconic species he once painted and described.

 
 

On May 7, 2012, the Museum of Arts & Sciences, in cooperation with the City of Daytona Beach and the Volusia County Council, announced a $13 million gift for construction of the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art. This expansion to the Museum of Arts & Sciences will be the permanent home for the Cici and Hyatt Brown collection of more than 2,600 paintings of Florida.

The unprecedented collection, which includes works from the acclaimed Reflections and Reflections II exhibitions, which both made their debuts at the Museum of Arts & Sciences, will be donated over the next several years and is the most extensive collection of Florida art anywhere in the world.

Additional donor dollars will create an endowment for the operation and maintenance of the 26,000 square foot building, which will front Nova Road just north of the existing Museum of Arts & Sciences.

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352 South Nova Road
Daytona Beach, FL 32114
View Map
(386) 255-0285
Open Daily
Monday - Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 11am - 5pm
Admission Info
Permanent Exhibitions
2024 Exhibit Sponsors
Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts.