EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine February 2019 | Page 16

by Charles Newbery
In Volusia County, the beach is a big attraction, but so too is the arts and culture scene. From the historic
Peabody Auditorium to the Daytona Turkey Run – arts and culture is a significant contributor to the
County’s economy. With continued “out of the box” thinking from local arts leadership, the arts will
continue to be a creative, economic force.
I
n 1919, a 2,200-seat concert venue opened in Daytona Beach,
one of the largest in central Florida. While far from the cultural
centers of London, New York and Paris, it attracted some
of the world’s greatest artists, including the Russian ballet
dancer Rudolph Nureyev and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Destroyed by fire in 1946, it was rebuilt as the Peabody
Auditorium, designed after the venerated Carnegie
Hall in New York, with the acoustics on par, a lure for
musicians and singers. The auditorium reopened
in 1949 and was named after Simon J. Peabody, a
businessman who lived in Daytona Beach from
1907 to 1933 and founded the original venue
on land he donated with the aim of bringing
the arts and culture to the beach city.
It has. Elvis Presley, Louie
Armstrong and Frank Sinatra, as well
as Broadway musicals like Chicago
Museum of Arts and Sciences (MOAS)
Giant Ground Sloth
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