Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art Rising
By Eileen Zaffiro-Kean eileen.zaffiro-kean@news-jrnl.com
The Daytona Beach News Journal
The museum will salute the
Florida cracker architectural style and include a 50-foot peak in the
main gallery, as well as meticulous landscaping around the building and
retention ponds that will be dominated by plants indigenous to Florida.
The
grand opening will cap a 20-year journey for Cici and Hyatt Brown, who
donated the paintings along with $13 million for construction and
another $2 million for what’s hoped to become an $8 million operations
and maintenance endowment.
Hyatt
Brown is board chairman of Daytona Beach-based Brown & Brown
insurance agencies and an honorary trustee for the museum. Cici Brown is
a member of the museum’s Board of Trustees and a past volunteer there.
The
Browns started in the mid-1990s with the purchase of an 1839 painting
of the gates of St. Augustine with no plan to amass so many other works –
some of which are the only visual records of things in Florida that
disappeared before photography was developed.
They
decided several years ago to donate the multi-million-dollar
collection, but found themselves on another winding road as they tried
to find the right property for a new museum. Eventually, they settled on
the site that’s just north of the Museum of Arts & Sciences.
“It
is exciting to see the walls going up,” said Cici Brown. “It feels
really good, but I’m not jumping up and down because I know we’ve got a
long way to go.”
Brown said she’s very happy with the way things are going, and her main concern is that everything is done well, not quickly.
“It’s fun. We’re having a good time,” she said. “We’ll be patient.”
Whole Article found here
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