Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention

What Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention does

The Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit experiential museum in Gainesville, Florida, founded by the family of Dr. James Robert Cade — the University of Florida physician and lead inventor of Gatorade. The Cade Museum Foundation was established in 2004 and the museum opened to the public on May 19, 2018, in a 21,000-square-foot building in Depot Park; an additional 24,000 square feet are planned for Phase Two. The institution serves families, homeschool families, K-12 school groups, early childhood education centers, and underserved communities in North Central Florida, with a stated mission to transform communities by inspiring and equipping future inventors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. It is governed by a board chaired by co-founder Phoebe Cade Miles and currently led by CEO Bradley Gamble (appointed April 2024).

The museum's core product is its hands-on exhibit and education portfolio, anchored by the proprietary "Inventivity Framework" (also branded "Invent Possible"), a STEAM-through-invention curriculum tied to Next Generation Science Standards and made available to teachers nationally. Exhibits include The Sweat Solution (Gatorade invention) and "Lewis Latimer: Lighting the Way" (the Age of Electricity, 1870s-1890s); educational offerings span Little Sparks (ages 0-5), SparkSeekers Homeschool Adventures (ages 7-11), week-long STEAM summer camps at $349 per student, Design + Doodle Lab, and the Cade at Home video series developed with WUFT PBS and VyStar. The Cade Prize for Inventivity — scaled in 2023 from a Florida-only to a national competition — awards over $100,000 annually to early-stage inventors across Healthcare, Energy, Technology, Agriculture/Environmental, and Wildcard categories. Supporting assets include the String Fellows instrument loan program with UF School of Music and museum memberships (Neuron $50, Synapse $100, Neural Network $150) with reciprocal access to 1,000+ museums via ASTC, ACM, and NARM.

Revenue is generated from a multi-stream model: single-ticket admissions ($10-$15), tiered annual memberships, summer camp tuition, homeschool session fees ($15), gift shop sales through The Loot Lab, quote-based event rentals (Rotunda, Petty Family Gallery, Creativity Lab), $55 Cade Prize application fees, and — most significantly — philanthropic contributions from individuals, corporate sponsors (VyStar), and foundations (PNC Foundation, Community Foundation of North Central Florida, Bruce J. Heim Foundation, Adria Petty memorial gift), supplemented by a permanent Cade family endowment. Distribution is overwhelmingly direct at the Gainesville physical location (open Thursday-Sunday 10am-4pm), with online ticketing via Blackbaud, national Cade Prize applicant flow as the only meaningful cross-state channel, and digital/YouTube reach via Cade at Home.

Name

Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention

Legal name

Cade Museum for Creativity & Invention

Website

https://cademuseum.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention is a nonprofit experiential museum in Gainesville, FL, delivering hands-on STEAM exhibits and educational programs for families, homeschoolers, and school groups. It runs the national Cade Prize for Inventivity competition and licenses the proprietary Inventivity Framework curriculum.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Museums and Cultural Institutions (STEAM Education)

NAICS

Museums (712110)

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Children’s Museums (THAJADAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Science & Technology Museums (THAJADAD)

Keywords

• Hands-on science museum
• STEAM education programs
• Interactive exhibits
• Invention competitions
• Youth science learning

Headquarters

HQ city

Gainesville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Museum Admission: Revenue from general admission tickets for visitors to the museum exhibits and programming. Adults $15, Youth (ages 5-17) $10, Children (ages 0-4) FREE, College Students $12.50, Seniors $12.50.
2. Memberships: Annual membership programs offering free admission, guest passes, shop discounts, and reciprocal benefits at other museums. Neuron (Individual) $50/yr, Synapse (Dual) $100/yr, Neural Network (Household) $150/yr.
3. Summer Camps: STEAM camps for kids during school breaks. 5-day camps priced at $349 per student with 10% member discount.
4. SparkSeekers Program: Homeschool drop-off program for ages 7-11, priced at $15 per student per session.
5. Event Rentals: Venue rental for weddings, dinners, corporate events, meetings, and team building. Includes Rotunda, Petty Family Gallery, and optional add-ons like Sweat Solution exhibit and Creativity Lab.
6. Gift Shop (Loot Lab): Retail sales of science kits, books, toys, museum merchandise, and novelty items.
7. Cade Prize Application Fees: Non-refundable application fee of $55 for the annual Cade Prize for Inventivity competition.
8. Donations and Grants: Philanthropic contributions from individuals, foundations (PNC Foundation, Community Foundation of North Central Florida, Bruce J. Heim Foundation), and corporate sponsors. Tax ID: 81-1234271.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Cade Museum is a hands-on experiential museum in Gainesville, Florida, delivering interactive STEAM exhibits, multi-age educational programming (Little Sparks, SparkSeekers Homeschool Adventures, STEAM Summer Camps), and the national Cade Prize for Inventivity competition. It also operates a tiered membership program with reciprocal benefits at more than 1,000 partner museums, a retail gift shop (Loot Lab), and event-rental venues for weddings, corporate events, and galas.

Product overview

Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention is an experiential hands-on museum in Gainesville, FL, offering a unified portfolio of educational programs and experiences. The core museum experience features interactive exhibits including The Sweat Solution (Gatorade invention) and The Age of Electricity (Lewis Latimer exhibit). Educational programs include Little Sparks (ages 0-5), SparkSeekers Homeschool Adventures (ages 7-11), and STEAM Summer Camps (grades 1-6). The museum operates the Cade Prize for Inventivity competition (annual national competition with 5+ categories and $100,000+ prize purse) and the Inventivity Framework, a proprietary educational curriculum. Additional offerings include Cade At Home video programming, String Fellows instrument loan program, membership tiers with reciprocal museum benefits, event rentals, and The Loot Lab gift shop. The museum targets families, homeschoolers, school groups, and the broader Gainesville community with hands-on STEAM learning experiences.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Invent Possible: Proprietary education curriculum that teaches science through the lens of invention, tied to Next Generation Science Standards
• Inventivity Framework
• Cade Prize for Inventivity
• Little Sparks
• SparkSeekers: Homeschool Adventures
• STEAM Camps for Kids
• Cade Prize

Products and services

• Cade Museum Experience An experiential hands-on museum in Gainesville, FL for all ages focused on celebrating creativity and invention through interactive exhibits, experiments, and 3D printing activities.
• Little Sparks Interactive program for children ages 0-5 introducing science concepts through music, dancing, crafting, and stories. Held Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 10:15 am.
• SparkSeekers: Homeschool Adventures Monthly drop-off program for homeschooled students ages 7-11 exploring STEAM concepts through hands-on learning and experimentation; $15 per student per session.
• STEAM Summer Camps Week-long summer camps for elementary-age students including Robot Roundup, Board Game Boss, Mission Inventivity, Milky Way Explorers, and other themed programs. Priced at $349 per student with member discounts.
• Design + Doodle Lab Drop-in art experience for all ages featuring pop-up art projects and open art stations with various materials and supplies.
• Cade At Home Video series for STEAM activities at home including Little Sparks, PBS Backpack, Mothers of Invention, Tech & Design (coding and 3D modeling with Scratch and TinkerCAD), and Brighter Idea; distributed via YouTube and PBS partnership.
• Cade Prize for Inventivity Annual competition recognizing and rewarding early-stage inventors and entrepreneurs with cash prizes totaling over $100,000. Categories include Agriculture/Environmental, Healthcare, Technology, Energy, and Wildcard; $55 application fee; expanded to national scope in 2023.
• Inventivity Framework Proprietary educational framework teaching science through the lens of invention, including The Pillars of Science and Building Blocks of Invention. Aligned with Next Generation Science Standards.
• The Age of Electricity Exhibit Museum exhibit featuring 'Lewis Latimer: Lighting the Way' exploring inventors from the 1870s-1890s electricity era with hands-on activities.
• String Fellows Program Music instrument loan program partnering with UF School of Music, loaning historic string instruments (31 instruments, 20 bows) from Dr. Cade's collection to UF music students for the academic year.
• The Sweat Solution Exhibit Interactive museum exhibit showcasing the invention of Gatorade, the science behind it, and industries it created. Features reaction time tests, human circuit building, and helmet crash testing.
• Membership Program Tiered membership program (Neuron $50, Synapse $100, Neural Network $150) offering free admission, guest passes, discounts, and reciprocal benefits at 300+ ASTC, 200+ ACM, and 1,000+ NARM partner museums nationwide.
• The Loot Lab Gift Shop Museum gift shop offering science kits, Jellycat toys and books, experiment kits, telescopes, Galileo thermometers, and Cade Museum merchandise.
• Event Rentals Facility rentals including the Rotunda (55-foot ceilings with oculus skylight), Petty Family Gallery, Creativity Lab, and Sweat Solution exhibit for weddings, corporate events, meetings, and galas; quote-based pricing with 501(c)(3) discounts.

Quantifiable outcome

• More than 245,000 visitors since opening in 2018
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

15 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Episcopal Children's ServicescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Partnership to deliver STEM Start at Head Start program providing innovative STEM programming for children under five and training for educators. Grew from 4 centers in 2020 to 13 centers by 2024 in Gainesville, Waldo, Hawthorne, and Bronson.
• WUFT PBScoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with WUFT PBS to develop PBS Backpack video series - fun, interactive videos that bring science concepts to life for children ages 5+. Part of the Cade at Home educational content platform.
• VyStar Credit UnioncoreGTM or Marketing PartnerSponsor of Brighter Idea video series addressing finance, banking, sports science topics. Also partnered for 'Good is everywhere' celebration providing free museum admission days.
• Community Foundation of North Central FloridacoreGTM or Marketing PartnerCade Prize sponsor providing support for the annual innovation competition. Part of broader ecosystem of sponsors including Scott R. MacKenzie, Florida High Tech Corridor, and others.
• The Florida High Tech CorridorcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerCade Prize sponsor - economic development initiative of University of Central Florida, University of South Florida, and University of Florida supporting innovation in 23-county region.
• Saliwanchik, Lloyd & EisenschenkminorGTM or Marketing PartnerIntellectual property law firm providing legal services to Cade Prize winners as part of sponsor benefits.
• 3D MusketeersminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCade Prize sponsor supporting innovation competition and entrepreneur ecosystem.
• NVision StrategiesminorGTM or Marketing PartnerStrategic consulting firm founded by Nimisha Savani providing marketing support for Cade Prize and museum programs.
• Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerReciprocal membership providing access to ASTC Passport Program with free or discounted admission at over 300 science museums nationwide for Cade Museum members.
• Association of Children's Museums (ACM)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerReciprocal membership providing 50% off general admission for Neural Network members at over 200 children's museums through ACM Reciprocal Network.
• North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) AssociationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerReciprocal membership providing free admission for two adults and children under 17 plus 10% off in gift shop at over 1,000 NARM member museums for Neural Network members.
• VyStar Credit UnionminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCommunity partner sponsoring free museum admission days as part of 'Good is everywhere' celebration with other arts and cultural organizations in North and Central Florida.
• Alachua County Farm BureauminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCommunity partner for annual Food and Agricultural Festival providing free museum admission during the event.
• United States Patent and Trade Office (USPTO)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to create 'Giving Thanks for Our Inventors' content diving into science behind innovation of traditional Thanksgiving foods.
• Florida Inventors Hall of FameminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInterviewed Phoebe Cade Miles about her father Dr. Robert Cade's work developing Gatorade and its impact on American patent law.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Pacific Science Center: Seattle-based hands-on science center with permanent exhibits, live programming, summer camps, and reciprocal ASTC membership ties. Directly comparable to the Cade Museum's exhibits-plus-programs model and same membership reciprocal network.
• Museum of Science, Boston: Large Boston-based science museum with hands-on exhibits, K-12 curriculum, camps, and IMAX programming. Comparable to the Cade Museum through exhibit-driven mission, educator resources, and reciprocal membership travel benefits.
• Exploratorium: Hands-on science museum in San Francisco known for interactive exhibits and inquiry-based learning pedagogy. Highly comparable to the Cade Museum in mission (public engagement with science and invention), exhibit-based business model, and reliance on memberships and donations for revenue.
• Carnegie Science Center: Pittsburgh science center operated by Carnegie Museums with exhibits, educator programs, and an emphasis on invention and technology. Comparable as a science-focused, family-oriented museum with K-12 outreach and STEM learning identity.
• The Franklin Institute: Philadelphia science museum with hands-on exhibits, traveling shows, and a STEM-education identity. Comparable to the Cade Museum as a ticketed science/maker museum with educational programming, memberships, event rentals, and a national brand in informal science learning.
• Children's Museum of Indianapolis: The largest children's museum in the world, combining play-based and STEAM programming similar to the Cade's Little Sparks and SparkSeekers. Highly comparable for family-facing STEAM content and traveling exhibits, though at considerably larger scale.

Regional players

• Orlando Science Center: Florida-based (Orlando) hands-on science museum serving Central Florida. Comparable to the Cade Museum in that it operates in the same state with similar exhibit/membership model and K-12 field trip programming, though in a different regional market.
• Museum of Discovery and Science: Fort Lauderdale science museum with exhibits, IMAX, and educational programming. Operates in the same Florida market as the Cade Museum with a similar target audience (families, K-12 school groups) and comparable revenue model.

Emerging players

• WonderLab Museum of Science, Health, and Technology: Bloomington, IN hands-on science museum focused on small-scale exhibits and family programming. Closest comparable to the Cade Museum in physical scale (~15,000 sq ft) and operating model, providing a relevant benchmark for small/mid-sized science museums.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UClsF5xerQBBvk8erNMbxxQA
• Facebookfacebook.com/thecademuseum
• Xx.com/cademuseum
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cade-museum-for-creativity-and-invention

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles29 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention