Preview
Creation Date
2018
Biography
Zach is a Florida Native born and raised in Miami, Florida and holds degrees from Florida State University in Communications, University of Central Florida in American History and a Masters in Education from Nova South Eastern University. Zach has been with the Museum of Arts and Sciences for 25 years and is the Senior Curator of Education and Curator of History with a specialty in Florida history, art and paleontology.
Zach also works extensively with the museum’s art collection in particular the Cici and Hyatt Brown Collection of historic Florida landscapes dating from 1835 to 2001. The Brown Collection is the largest and most important collection of Florida landscapes in the world housing over 2,500 paintings from many of the greatest landscape painters in the world. Zach has travelled all over Northeast and Central Florida conducting outreach presentations on the collection and other various Florida history topics.
Zach has also worked with many other permanent and travelling art exhibitions, such as, The Glories of Ancient Egypt, Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Dale Chilhuly. Permanent art collections include The Art and History of Coca Cola, Cuban art, African, early American, and various decorative arts throughout history.
During the Fall of 2011, Zach discovered the Daytona Mastodon in a drainage pond near the museum and is currently oversaw the new exhibit gallery for the Giant Ground Sloth and Daytona Mastodon recently completed in October of 2015. Zach has conducted outreach in paleontology all over North East Florida for over 25 years teaching both adults and school age children. Currently, Zach is a cast member for a PBS series called “The Fossil Hunters” a show about fossilizing in Florida currently airing on WDSC in Daytona Beach and soon offered to all PBS stations statewide. He also recently appeared on the Travel Channel as a guest historian with Philippe Cousteau Jr. and his wife on a new show about pirates.
Zach recently was invited to speak at the Smithsonian Institution on museum education issues and gives talks on various Florida history topics throughout Central Florida. He has also written for the Smithsonian blog on two occasions and is published quarterly in the Arts and Sciences magazine. Zach also was invited in 2016 speak at Florida State University Geologic Society on topics in prehistoric Florida. Zach recently spoke at the Florida Association of Museums Conference in Naples, Florida in 2018 on volunteering topics in museums. In 2017, Zach won the Advocacy Award from Volusia County Council PTA for the arts. He lives in Deland, Florida with his wife he has two grown children Zoey who is at Santa Fe College and a son Quinn who is a 4th year engineering student at University of Florida. He also has 9 llamas, 3 horses, and one cattle dog.
