Skip to main content

Museum Hours

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

Last Tour begins at 5:00pm.

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.

Plan Your Visit
Contact Us

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.

Book A Tour

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.

View All Programs
Ignite Summer Camp
application Closed

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...

Learn More
application Closed

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...

Learn More

Events

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

All Events

Motown MIC: The Spoken Word Competition Grand Finale


September 20, 2024

The Cube, Detroit

Learn More

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.

Support Motown
Museum Donors

Monetary Support

Make a Donation

Donate

Partnership Opportunities

Giving Guide

Learn More

Annual Subscriber

Become a Member

Join Today!

Museum Hours

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

🎙️ Saturdays at 2pm ET: Live From Motown Museum on SiriusXM's Smokey Soul Town (ch. 74)

News

Barrett Strong, Motown Performer and Songwriter, Dies at 81

January 2023

It is with great sadness that we share the passing of legendary classic Motown singer and songwriter Barrett Strong.

The voice behind Motown Record’s first hit, the iconic “Money (That’s What I Want),” was born in West Point, Mississippi on February 5, 1941 and was raised in Detroit.

After touring throughout the city with his siblings, Strong’s ethereal vocal style caught the attention of Jackie Wilson who introduced him to Berry Gordy. In April of 1959, Barrett was signed to Gordy’s Tamla Records and, later that month, released his first-ever single, “Let’s Rock.”

In July of that same year—after overhearing an in-studio conversation between Mr. Gordy and Motown songwriter Janie Bradford—Strong started playing the piano and, within moments, “Money (That’s What I Want)” was created. The song eventually reached #2 on the U.S. R&B charts, #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and ultimately #288 on Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”

Mr. Strong later paired with Motown producer Norman Whitfield to create some of the label’s most successful and critically acclaimed songs including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” made famous by both Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight & the Pips, Edwin Starr’s “Where I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home), and The Temptations’ 1973’s Grammy Award-winning “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” and 1971’s Billboard charts #1 hit “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me).”

Barrett’s prolific career and contributions as one of Motown’s top lyricists earned him induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004.

Barrett Strong died Saturday, January 28, at the age of 81 in Detroit. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and Motown family and fans around the world.

“I am saddened to hear of the passing of Barrett Strong, one of my earliest artists, and the man who sang my first big hit “Money (That’s What I Want)” in 1959.

 Barrett was not only a great singer and piano player, but he, along with his writing partner Norman Whitfield, created an incredible body of work, primarily with the Temptations. Their hit songs were revolutionary in sound and captured the spirit of the times like “Cloud Nine” and the still relevant, “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World is Today).”

 My heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends. Barrett is an original member of the Motown Family and will be missed by all of us.”

Berry Gordy
Motown Founder
January 29, 2023

Barrett Strong (R) with Norman Whitfield

 


Back to blog home

Join Our Newsletter

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.