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Museum Hours

  • Monday: Closed
  • Tuesday: Closed
  • Wednesday: 10am-6pm
  • Thursday: 10am-6pm
  • Friday: 10am-6pm
  • Saturday: 10am-6pm
  • Sunday: 10am-6pm

We are closed on New Years Day, Memorial Day, Easter Sunday, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Years Eve

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Motown Museum is the beating heart of the extraordinary Motown legacy—a destination that brings together people and ideas from different generations, and celebrates the past while simultaneously building a bridge to the future.

About Motown Museum

To ensure our vast collection maintains public visibility, and to keep things fresh for our guests, Motown Museum changes its main gallery exhibit 1-2 times per year. Here is what’s currently showing at our museum.

Current Exhibit

Motown Museum transports you into an era of musical magic. From the moment you step on the plaza, you’ll be immersed in the Motown sound and will experience a profound sense of history.

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Hitsville NEXT Programs

Our uniquely curated community programs emphasize education, entrepreneurship and equity—with experiences, mentoring and exposure that nurtures and elevates tomorrow’s history makers. Museum programs cultivate creativity and entrepreneurship in budding talent, allowing great art, big ideas and innovation to flourish.

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Lyric Project


Ages 14-18 | June 18 – 28

Lyric Project is a two-week workshop that helps students learn about songwriting, music production, and communicating powerful and authentic emotions through music...

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Ignite Summer Camp
application Open

Ignite Summer Camp


9 - 12 Grade | July 9 - 19

Ignite is a two-week program designed for high school-aged singers who want to take their musical talents to the next level...

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application Open

Spark Summer Camp


6 – 8 Grade | August 6 - 16

For middle-school students passionate about music, we offer Spark, a day camp that helps students write and perform music together...

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Events

From memorable galas and concert performances, to community celebrations and educational programs, we host a range of special events throughout the year.

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AMPLIFY: The Sound of Detroit Grand Finale


March 16, 2024

Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts

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Private Events

Interested in hosting your own event at Motown?

Facility Rental

Motown Legacy

As an irresistible force of social and cultural change, the legendary Motown portfolio made its mark not just on the music industry, but society at large, with a signature Motown Sound that has become one of the most significant musical accomplishments and stunning success stories of the 20th century.

Discover The Legacy

Like many other African Americans in the early 20th century, Berry Gordy, Sr. and his wife, Bertha Fuller Gordy, came North from Georgia to find a better life for themselves and their family.

Gordy Family

Motown is an extended family of some of the most iconic and influential artists, musicians and songwriters of our time. Brought together by destiny through their love for making music, they found themselves making history.

Motown Artists

The culmination of years of planning, hard work and generous contributions from dedicated donors, the highly anticipated, $50 million Motown Museum expansion project will grow the museum campus to a 50,000-square-foot world-class entertainment and education tourist destination.

Expansion

Support Motown Museum

When you contribute to the Motown Museum, you become part of a rich musical and cultural legacy. We are a 501(c)(3) not for profit, tax-exempt organization in Detroit.

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Museum Hours

  • Monday: Closed
  • Tuesday: Closed
  • Wednesday: 10am-6pm
  • Thursday: 10am-6pm
  • Friday: 10am-6pm
  • Saturday: 10am-6pm
  • Sunday: 10am-6pm
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Museum memberships are an investment in the preservation and conservation of our historic legacy. Become A Member

Stevie Wonder

Signed in 1961

Stevie Wonder

Steveland Judkins Morris was only 11 years old when Motown signed him to a contract in 1961. A musical genius, Stevie could do it all: he sang, he played multiple instruments and he wrote music that was often ahead of its time.  

From precocious pre-teen to prodigious producer, Stevie’s first #1 hit, “Fingertips, Part 2,” burst on the scene in 1963 after being recorded live during the Motortown Revue. More #1 hits followed, including “Uptight (Everything Is Alright),” “With a Child’s Heart” and the socially conscious cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.” During this period, Stevie began to work as a songwriter, penning the Miracles’ “Tears of a Clown” and the Spinners’ “It’s a Shame,” among other tunes 

Stevie received full creative control of his work after he turned 21, and began to write, perform and produce the albums for which he is most wellknown. The first, 1972’s Music of My Mind, was groundbreaking in its development of a unified album theme, his use of synthesizer pioneers, and the inclusion of social topics. His next album, Talking Book featured the hits “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” and “Superstition.” Stevie also took an unusual step for a Motown artist by going on tour with the British rock band the Rolling Stones, which brought his music to an audience with different musical tastes. Later albums, including InnervisonsFulfillingness’ First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life, continued his streak of successes and earned him multiple Grammy Awards. 

His 1980 release, Hotter Than July, was Wonder’s first platinum album. The star used one of the album’s cuts, “Happy Birthday,” to fuel his campaign to have Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday declared a national holiday. Continuing to write, produce and record, Stevie produced music for films over the next two decades to the delight of fans across the world. 

Throughout his prolific career, Stevie Wonder has been rightfully regarded as a musical genius. The 100 million records he has sold and his 30 Top 10 hits, Academy Award for Best Song and 22 Grammy Awards attest to his talent and skills. Induction into the Songwriters and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame was to be expected. Rolling Stone magazine named Wonder the ninth greatest singer of all time. 

Stevie Wonder performs “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours.”

Stevie Wonder performs “For Once in my Life” on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1968.

 

Motown Note

Stevie Wonder’s 1972 release Talking Book was the first American album to enter the Billboard charts at first place.


 

The Adantes

The Andantes

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Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye

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The Jackson 5

The Jackson 5

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The Miracles

The Miracles

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Martha and the Vandellas

Martha Reeves and the Vandellas

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