By Jeff Karoub
DETROIT (AP) --Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr. is donating $4 million toward a project to expand a museum housed in the Detroit building where he built his music empire, officials announced Wednesday.
Gordy's gift, which coincides with the company's 60th anniversary, is the largest individual donation to the project officially announced in 2016, the Motown Museum said. It has attracted contributions from individuals, philanthropies and automotive companies, including Gordy's long-ago employer Ford Motor Co. Gordy has long said the auto industry served as the inspiration for what would become an assembly line of record-making.
"I'm excited about the future of Motown Museum and happy to support it," Gordy said in a release. "Not only will the expanded museum entertain and tell the stories of talented and creative people who succeeded against all odds, but it will also inspire and create opportunity for people to explore their dreams the way I did mine. I couldn't be prouder to be a part of that."
Gordy launched Motown in 1959, moved the label to Los Angeles in 1972 and sold it in 1988. His late sister, Esther Gordy Edwards, founded the museum in the former "Hitsville U.S.A." headquarters on West Grand Boulevard in 1985. When Edwards died in 2011, Gordy — who has previously donated properties, artifacts and money to the museum — credited her with turning "the so-called trash left behind … into a phenomenal world-class monument at the spot where Hitsville started."
Museum expansion plans include interactive exhibits, a performance theater, recording studios, an expanded retail area and meeting spaces. Museum officials say they are not releasing fundraising totals.
Robin Terry, Motown Museum CEO and Gordy's grand-niece, said in the release that his donation "advances our vision of making the expanded museum a world class entertainment and educational destination that will ensure the inspiration of Motown lives on for generations to come."
Motown's roster of artists from the Detroit era included The Supremes, the Miracles, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5, the Four Tops and Temptations.
Apple’s “Fuzzy Feelings” Wins Primetime Commercial Emmy Award
Apple’s “Fuzzy Feelings” won the primetime commercial Emmy this evening (9/7) during the first of two Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremonies being held this weekend in the Peacock Theater at LA Live. The yuletide film out of TBWAMedia Arts Lab was directed by Lucia Aniello via Hungry Man in tandem with stop-motion animator Anna Mantzaris of Passion Pictures.
“Fuzzy Feelings” introduces us to an office worker by day and stop-motion artist by night. As an employee, she works for a boss whom she’s grown to hate. So at night, her stop-motion creations put him in dire straits. The young woman makes her stop-motion fare by deploying the iPhone 15 Pro camera and a MacBook Air with M2 to edit it. However, when the woman's day job takes a turn and she starts to see her boss in another light, so too do her stop-motion endeavors as we see the value of working towards a kinder world, and what better time to start than during the holiday season?
Director Aniello is no stranger to the Emmy proceedings. As creator of the HBO Max series Hacks, she has won two Emmys (writing and directing) as well as a DGA Award. This year she is nominated for three more Emmys on the strength of Hacks--Outstanding Comedy Series as well as writing and directing for a comedy series.
This marks the second straight year that an Apple film has won the coveted primetime commercial Emmy. Back in January 2024, Apple’s “The Greatest,” directed by Kim Gehrig of Somesuch, came away with the Emmy.
This time around, “Fuzzy Feelings” topped a field of nominated commercials consisting of: Apple’s “Album Cover” from Apple’s in-house creatives and directed by David Shane of O Positive; Uber One | Uber Eats’ “Best Friends,” also... Read More