Gainesville, Florida
Science, Specialized
To inspire creative thinking, future inventors, and early entrepreneurs.
The Cade Museum for Creativity + Invention - located in Gainesville, Florida - is named for Dr. James Robert Cade, the physician, musician, researcher and inventor best known for leading the University of Florida team that created Gatorade, to honor his creative spirit and passion for new ideas.
The Cade Museum is a hands-on solution to some very real problems. American Creativity Quotient (CQ) scores have been steadily and significantly declining since 1990*, coupled with falling academic performance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). We propose to help change that by highlighting the link between creative thought and breakthrough ideas. For the first time, hands-on science and art experimentation will be linked, highlighted and informed by the work of inventors past and present, including bringing contemporary entrepreneurs and students together.
The Cade Museum’s goal is not just to have our visitors know about creativity and invention but to become inventors and entrepreneurs. Every exhibit, workshop and program will move our audience closer to using their own creativity in purposeful ways. Our educational goal is to make everyone understand that they are, or can be, creative—to take “creativity” off the pedestal that it is normally placed upon. And we have already taken great leaps toward achieving this goal.
In 2010 the Cade began to inspire future inventors and entrepreneurs through the annual Cade Museum Prize, a $50,000 award provided by the Community Foundation of North Central Florida, given to a project that demonstrates originality and its potential to have a large impact. In 2012 the Cade opened the Creativity Lab in our “temporary” offices and began offering classes, workshops, outreach events and collaborative programs for children. And in this first year we have already reached thousands. The excitement is growing and so is our reputation.