Summer Fun at the Cade

“The Cade Museum is… a collection of what might be and who might create it. It is a must see and do for children.” –John H. Review on Trip Advisor 

Named after Dr. James Robert Cade, the University of Florida professor who invented Gatorade, the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention is a museum for all ages that fuels a thirst for knowledge. The Cade offers children and adults unprecedented access to world-class inventors, visionaries, and entrepreneurs through exhibits and programming. Not only do visitors learn what inspired inventors, both past and present, but they also learn how to think like an inventor. 
“As a child, I had a proverbial seat at the table and I observed my father’s inventive mindset,” says museum co-founder, Phoebe Cade Miles, daughter of Dr. Cade. “I learned that problems don’t overwhelm an inventor, but instead spark curiosity.” The Cade allows children and adults alike to play, create, and experiment. At the Cade, failure is just finding a way that did not work and when an experiment fails, Cade Educators inspire visitors to re-purpose, re-create, and view problems from new perspectives. 

Cade Educators offer hands-on learning that equips visitors for an innovative future and fosters the inventive spirit within us all. In the museum’s Creativity Lab, visitors can get messy making magnetic slime or they can learn about electrons while making a popsicle stick flashlight. In the Fabrication Lab, visitors can bring an idea to life by working with an educator to build a 3D model and print it on a 3D printer, or they can escape into a world of virtual reality with the Cade’s VR headsets. With Edison’s Pile of Junk in the museum’s Rotunda, participants are encouraged to invent something new using everyday items like yarn, paper rolls, and construction paper.
 
The Cade offers rotating themes (museum-wide exhibits and activities that focus on a particular lens of invention) and hosts traveling exhibits. This summer, from May to September, the museum’s theme is Eureka! with the exhibit Reinventing Immunity. When an idea evolves into an invention, that idea can change the world. But where do ideas come from? Visitors can draw, tinker, prototype, and play as they meet the inventors who transformed history, one idea at a time, and they learn how big challenges inspire inventors to find even bigger solutions. 

This summer’s traveling exhibit, How People Make Things, comes from the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. Children today can feel removed from how common items in their lives are made – their toys, clothes and more. How People Make Things tells the story of how everyday items are manufactured and brings to life the people, ideas and technology that transform raw materials into finished products. Inspired by the Mister Rogers' Factory Tours, this hands-on, interactive exhibit helps children appreciate that the objects in their lives were made through human ingenuity. 

In addition to general admission on Friday through Sunday, the Cade also offers weekly programming and will be offering summer camps from June to August. Weekly programming includes Little Sparks on Saturdays at 12:15 p.m. and Story Time on Sundays at 12:15 p.m. for ages 0-5. No pre-registration required; cost is included in general admission.  

Summer camps are offered for ages 6-9 and 10-14. They take place Monday-Friday and cover topics like making your own podcast, designing your own game, engineering a moon base, and exploring art and nature. Register at cademuseum.org/camps. 

The Cade Museum is perfect for a day trip! Located on the beautiful Depot Park, travelers can visit the museum, take a stroll on the hiking trails, and have a picnic in the park with food from local vendors. Depot Park also offers a playground. 
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The Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention is open Fridays-Sundays 12 p.m.-5 p.m., 811 S. Main St., Gainesville, FL 32601. General admission is $12.50; youth ages 5-17, $7.50; children ages 0-4 get in free; seniors and college students only pay $10, and Cade Museum members get in free. Visit cademuseum.org for more information.  
 
About the Cade Museum 
  
In 2004, Dr. James Robert Cade and his family established the Cade Museum Foundation to build the Cade Museum for Creativity & Invention in Gainesville, Florida. The Cade’s mission is to transform communities by inspiring and equipping future inventors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. Dr. Cade, a physician at the University of Florida, was best known as the leader of a research team that invented Gatorade in 1965. The Cade Museum is open to the public and located at 811 South Main Street, Gainesville, FL 32601. An independent 501(c)(3) public foundation, the museum receives no operational funding from federal, state, or local governments, or the University of Florida. 

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