- December 4, 2025
The Children's Museum at MOAS. Courtesy photo
The Children's Museum at MOAS. Courtesy photo
The Children's Museum at MOAS. Courtesy photo
The Children's Museum at MOAS. Courtesy photo
The Children's Museum at MOAS. Courtesy photo
After 17 years of serving the community, the Children's Museum at the Museum of Arts and Sciences is bidding the community goodbye — at least for a little while.
As MOAS prepares to begin the first phase of its future major expansion and renovation project, made possible by a $150 million endowment by Ormond Beach philanthropists Cici and J. Hyatt Brown, the exhibits inside the Children's Museum will be taken down. A fixture in the museum since Nov. 8, 2008, the space will close its doors at 5 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 8, following a community farewell event where visitors can share memories of their time in the museum.
The transformation of the space will begin on Saturday, Aug, 9.
The closure of the Children's Museum is a reminder of the next chapter for MOAS.
"It's very exciting," MOAS Chief Advancement Officer Jonna Royer said. "However, it is also sad. There are a lot of people that enjoy the Children's Museum and use it as a weekly outing with their kids, but we just want to reassure them that it's not going away forever. It's just going away for now."
MOAS does plan to open a new, reimagined Children's Museum experience in its future building, slated to span two stories and 60,000 square feet on 60 acres at 352 S. Nova Road.
But in the meantime, Royer said they don't want the current Children's Museum space to remain empty. So, on Oct. 11, it will be home to a new exhibit — "Expedition: Dinosaur," which will feature animatronic dinosaurs, fossil displays and interactive learning stations. A special member preview will be held on Oct. 10, and the exhibit will be on display through March 29.
And while many of the Children's Museum's interactive elements will be donated to Burns Science and Technology Charter School in Oak Hill, not all are going away. Two popular areas will remain: the Tiny Tots area and the Pizza Place, an exhibit where children can imagine they're operating a pizza restaurant.
"People love the Pizza Place area so much that over this last week, we have had papers and crayons out so that children can draw their favorite part of the Children's Museum, and inevitably, most of those pictures are actually a pizza," Royer said.
There have been a lot of stories shared by the public of memories made in the Children's Museum, she added. It's been amazing to see, she said, because you don't often realize what an impact the museum can have on the community.
"To walk in and just see the excitement, to see how much the kids enjoy being in there ... and then just giving the parents that little bit of respite where they know that they're in a space where their children can play and the parents can relax and just be able to enjoy themselves, that's a nice thing to be able to offer," Royer said.
To keep the public informed of updates on the upcoming museum transformation, MOAS has launched a new website — moasfuture.org.
The concepts on the website are very general for now, Royer said. The museum is still in the initial stages of the building project, which she said Hyatt Brown likes to call the "Wow" building.
"The whole idea behind it is when people walk up to it, they're going to go, 'Wow,'" Royer said. "And that's the kind of experience that we want them to have in it, too. We want them to come in and go, 'Wow' just because of what they're experiencing."
The new building is being guided by the museum's strategic plan — from how it will be constructed to the programs and exhibits it will offer.
According to MOAS, the Brown's endowment, known as the "Crown Jewel Campaign," is the largest cultural donation in Florida's history.
"This really is their legacy gift," Royer said. "They want this museum to be something that outlasts them and is available, not just for Daytona and not even just for Volusia County, but it's going to become an icon for all of Central Florida. To have the monetary gift that they have given us shows people that we're very serious about having this be that cornerstone."
In addition to donations, the community can help MOAS in its transition by granting them patience and understanding, Royer said.
"We understand that they may be frustrated as some things close down, but also we want them to look forward and get as excited as we are, because with what is coming, we are going to be able to offer so much more than what we can offer right now," Royer said. "But, in order to do that, we have to have some growing pains, and that's going to be some inconveniences of things closing. We just hope that when those things do close, the public realizes that it's not something to be upset about — it's something to celebrate, because that means that we are one step closer to coming up with the finished product."
