Motown Museum expansion, reopening celebrated in grand style by Smokey Robinson and more

In 2016, the Motown Museum's expansion amounted to a few early renderings and one big dream.

On Monday, six years after the Detroit institution announced its big vision and ambitious fundraising campaign, the museum at last unveiled the completed opening stages of its $55 million expansion project.

It was a bustling, celebratory, music-filled evening at the West Grand Boulevard site, where Motown stars, politicians, donors and news media gathered on the just-finished granite plaza that now lines the front lawn. The spirit was festive — the sort of occasion that had Martha Reeves breaking into an impromptu dance on the plaza with young museum staffers as the Contours’ “Do You Love Me” pumped from the speakers.

Guests learned that the paved outdoor space will be formally named Rocket Plaza, which museum CEO and chairwoman Robin Terry called the “new front porch to Motown.” It follows a $5 million gift from Dan Gilbert’s Rocket Companies and Gilbert Family Foundation, revealed during Monday's event.

The Gilbert donation brings the fundraising total to $43 million, with $12 million left to go as the Motown Museum targets 2024 to consummate the third, final and most eye-catching phase of its expansion: a large building with new exhibit space behind the iconic Hitsville, U.S.A., house.

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow told Monday's crowd she has vowed to secure federal money as the museum marches toward its fundraising finish line.

Meanwhile, the construction fencing in place since last summer will finally be coming down as the museum welcomes back the public Saturday with a free outdoor community party called Founder’s Day, an event held annually on what used to be the grassy front lawn.

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The museum has been closed since July 2021, initially because of basement flood damage and then as plaza construction began. Tours will resume Sunday.

The museum action comes amid a big Motown week in Detroit that includes Tuesday's hometown opening of the Temptations' Broadway musical, "Ain't Too Proud," which will run through Aug. 28 at the Detroit Opera House. Five cast members closed Monday's event with a rendition of "My Girl."

Smokey Robinson, the Temptations’ Otis Williams, the Four Tops’ Duke Fakir, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and both of Michigan’s U.S. senators — Stabenow and Gary Peters — were on hand for Monday’s event.

Their backdrop was the Hitsville house, where many in Monday’s crowd once teamed up with Berry Gordy to help transform music history and “start this dynasty,” as Robinson put it.

Three years after Gordy led a ceremonial groundbreaking at the site, Monday marked a big, visible step into the museum's future. The institution is hoping to chart a path firmly rooted in Motown’s storied past while fueling the brand’s relevance and creative energy for coming generations.

The event made clear the Motown Museum’s expansion isn’t just about new construction — it also aims to refresh a Detroit legacy for those who weren't around in the 1960s.

That point was driven home as Monday's guests got their first look inside Hitsville Next, a project that has renovated and connected three homes adjacent to the main Motown house. The new complex contains the museum’s youth education and creative collaboration facilities.

The fresh, clean-lined space, where walls are full of vintage photos capturing the music-making of original Motown greats, includes a recording studio, meeting rooms and “spaces for creatives to be creative,” as one museum official said. For now, Hitsville Next will be used by participants in the museum’s artistic programs, including Amplify and Motown Mic, but within a year, it will be accessible to artists in the wider Detroit community.

Monday’s guests were treated to lively performances by young people involved in those programs, including a powerful poem by spoken-word artist Ben Will retracing Motown’s origins and a harmonized rendition of the Miracles’ “I Second that Emotion” by a group of Amplify singers calling itself the Fab Five.

A grinning Robinson looked on admiringly at the youthful performance of the 1967 hit he famously recorded in the house behind him.

“One of the things I love about the vision here is that it is about the next generation, for young people,” said Stabenow, a pianist, guitarist and singer beyond her life on Capitol Hill. “I gained confidence to stand before a crowd because of music. I learned math because of music. There are so many ways in which music creates the opportunity for young people to be successful.”

Monday’s audience included key donors who have propelled the fundraising campaign, including Ethan Daniel Davidson, who sits on the museum's board of trustees and whose William Davidson Foundation helped kick-start the expansion effort early on.

“This is a house of dreams,” said museum chief Terry. “But we needed people to believe in us.”

The museum’s newest artifact was also one of the night's stars. The Temptations’ Williams has donated one of the group’s signature four-headed microphone stands — an onstage innovation devised by the late David Ruffin.

The mic had sat in storage for years, Williams said. Used for performances including 1983’s iconic “Motown 25” TV special, it had a cool twist: remote-control capability that guided it into position onstage.

In a moving speech recalling Motown’s humble beginnings, Robinson said his best friend Gordy, back home in L.A., was “here in spirit.”

He rhapsodized about the bond among the Motown family, poignantly noting that 80% of the artists and personnel pictured in photos inside the museum have passed on.

But he paid tribute to the museum’s multigenerational efforts in that regard.

“There are kids who haven’t been born yet, whose parents haven’t been born yet, who will know about Motown,” Robinson said.

Williams, who recounted his days with the Temptations hanging out on the very front lawn where Monday’s crowd assembled, echoed Robinson’s point: “Motown will outlast us all.”

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

Motown Museum reopening plans

Founder's Day, commemorating Motown Museum founder Esther Gordy Edwards, will run noon to 5 p.m. Saturday outside the museum at 2648 W. Grand Boulevard. The event, which will include food trucks and musical performances, is free and open to the public.

Limited museum tours will resume Sunday following a yearlong closure. (Note: The facility's elevator remains out of service because of water damage in 2021. Full tours are expected to return Oct. 1.)