There are plenty of reasons for the bright mood that surrounds the Motown Museum these days: a $75 million expansion, a renewed connection with Detroit’s creative community, a growing international profile.
And now, in the thick of that momentum, a new executive has taken the reins.
Meet Kenya LeNoir Messer, hired as Motown Museum CEO following a 15-month national search. The Chicago native isn’t just overseeing daily operations at one of Detroit’s most beloved cultural institutions — she arrives as the museum deploys its hallowed history as the springboard to a reimagined future.
Messer will work closely with continuing chairwoman and former CEO Robin Terry, granddaughter of Esther Gordy Edwards, who launched the museum 40 years ago at the West Grand Boulevard site where Motown reshaped American culture.
“Momentum is irreplaceable. It’s like lightning in a bottle,” Messer said during a sit-down Oct. 16 at the museum’s executive offices. “It’s very rare that someone, particularly a CEO, can come into a situation like this — and come into it with a chairwoman who is very much the continuation of the legacy.”
Terry, also the grandniece of Motown founder Berry Gordy, remains the crucial family link to a Detroit music enterprise that produced the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Four Tops and so many more barrier-breaking acts.
She describes Messer’s CEO appointment as a deepening of the Motown Museum bench.
“I knew it was a tall ask to find the person who could really be in love with this legacy to the same degree my grandmother, myself and the rest of the Gordy lineage are connected to it,” said Terry. “We went through a lot of candidates. To be honest, there were points where I thought it might be impossible. And then there was Kenya.”
Messer, 57, hails from the world of academia, including time as the associate dean of student affairs at Columbia University and as a vice president at Ohio’s Wilberforce University. A published author and researcher, she has served on a host of national and global boards, many with a business or cultural focus, including the New Orleans Museum of Art.
When Terry announced in February 2024 she’d be stepping down as Motown Museum CEO, the timing was strategic: She and the board wanted to install a new executive before the institution’s expansion was complete.
“They would get to invest in the vision for the institution as it goes forward,” Terry said. “We didn’t want to build it and then say, ‘Here are the keys.’ ”
If you’ve been by the West Grand Boulevard campus lately, you’ve surely spotted the expansion in progress as a 40,000-square-foot annex at last begins to appear. Behind the iconic Hitsville, U.S.A., house, building crews are hustling and steel is rising as the museum moves into the third and final phase of an expansion plan announced nine years ago this week.
The completion timeline has shifted: The museum, originally scheduled to pause tours this month to accommodate the work, will continue to be open to visitors through Jan. 19. Construction is set to finish in October of next year, with a grand opening planned for spring 2027.
During the downtime, which will include minor yet necessary upgrades inside the Hitsville building, the Motown Museum will continue its retail offerings, along with its Hitsville Next arts and business programming. Temporary exhibits are planned for other Detroit spaces.
Made for Motown
Long before the CEO title was attached to her name, Messer’s Motown journey began just as it has for millions of people across the globe: as a music-loving kid.
Growing up in musical household in the ’70s, she and an older brother enjoyed weekly trips to the record store with the family, and she vividly recalls her first album purchase — Stevie Wonder’s classic double album, “Songs in the Key of Life.”
“That changed everything for me,” she said. “It was like foreshadowing because it’s still one of my all-time favorites.”
Motown records were also at Messer’s fingertips during her time as a club DJ during the rise of Chicago house music, when artists such as the Originals and Carl Bean were part of the repertoire.
The CEO position is a chance to “marry my passion and my purpose,” Messer said. She arrives at the Motown Museum during a bustling 40th anniversary year that has included the launch of the Esther Gordy Edwards Centre for Excellence, a two-story facility just west of the main campus.
Among her first activities as CEO was a private luncheon with Motown alumni in Detroit, a chance to experience “what that love is all about,” said Terry.
“They embraced her wholeheartedly,” the chairwoman added. “The responsibility of this legacy is great. This is their lives. This is their stories. So it was important that Kenya got an introduction to really understand the magnitude of the Motown family.”
Messer speaks emphatically about that sense of responsibility as she assumes a high-profile leadership role in Motown’s hometown. “We stand on the shoulders of greatness,” she said.
Her job will involve the museum’s day-to-day business operations, working with the internal team and partners in Michigan and beyond — the “friendship building” she calls more important than ever in a post-expansion future. That includes immersing herself in Detroit’s arts and culture community, and Messer said she has already begun making critical connections.
Terry, who took on the chairwoman and CEO role in 2014, has proved to be a transformative figure at Hitsville, raising the museum’s global profile and shepherding the expansion. For more than a decade, she has been the institution’s most visible public face, and as board chair, she’ll continue a role she describes as “the legacy lead,” including fundraising as the museum nears its $75 million expansion goal.
With the recent promotion of Sharri Watkins to chief operating officer, it’s worth noting that the Motown Museum’s top leadership is all-female. It doesn’t just mirror the museum’s 1985 founding by Edwards; it echoes strides made in the ‘60s by Berry Gordy when he broke music-industry convention by appointing women to key positions inside the label.
“I want to be clear: We looked for the best candidate to fill this role, and that’s how we landed on Dr. Kenya Messer,” said Terry. “But it’s not lost on me that my grandmother was a huge advocate for women and mentored many of them in her life. So it feels very appropriate.”
During last week’s interview, Messer and Terry frequently characterized themselves as a team. The new CEO broke into the chorus of “It Takes Two,” the Kim Weston-Marvin Gaye classic, and at one point the pair exchanged a high five.
“It’s the dynamic duo!” Terry said.
Asked whether she has joined the Motown family at a particularly cool moment in museum history, Messer beamed with a smile.
“The momentum is enormous. This is the time for it, particularly in a space where joy is needed,” she told the Free Press. “When we think about the world and the notion that unity is needed — when we think about the legacy of Motown and the inspiration it brings — there’s no better time than this.
“So ‘cool’ is one word. But ‘awesome’ is better.”
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: It takes two: New Motown Museum CEO pairs with Gordy family veteran to lead Detroit institution
Reporting by Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
