A planned Detroit techno music museum is still a go, despite a halt in the Packard Plant project to which it was recently attached, its founder told the Detroit Free Press.
MODEM — the Museum of Detroit Electronic Music — was announced in December as part of Packard Park, a proposed mixed-use development at the abandoned factory site.
But the overall plan was scuttled in late March by Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield, who declared that the Packard developers’ letter of intent had expired and the city was now exploring other options for the property.
Museum founder and Executive Director Adriel Thornton said he worried about public perception following the news: People may have gotten the mistaken impression the Packard decision spelled the end of MODEM.
“The main point is that the city hasn’t canceled the museum,” Thornton said. “They can’t. This is ours.”
MODEM, a nonprofit endeavor, is back to seeking a permanent home somewhere in the city, just as it was doing before linking up with the Packard Park developers last year.
Thornton, a longtime event promoter and key figure on the city’s techno scene, conceived the museum in 2020, inspired in part by Exhibit 3000, a collection of Detroit techno artifacts at Submerge Records.
Thornton expects a crowdfunding campaign to be launched in May to help fuel the project.
Thornton and his team have been eyeing locations in what he calls “the greater downtown area,” including the Midtown cultural district.
And because the Packard Park project has not been definitively axed, there’s still a possibility MODEM winds up back in those plans if they’re revived by the city. The proposal has called for a $50 million, 28-acre development that would feature a manufacturing facility, housing, a skating park and the museum. The famed abandoned factory was the scene of underground parties during techno’s formative years.
Developers Mark Bennett and Oren Goldenberg learned in March their plans for Packard Park hit a snag as the mayor’s administration sought to “explore a broader range of redevelopment options,” per a mayoral spokesman.
For Thornton, the concept of a techno museum became even more imperative after the deaths of pioneers such as Mike Huckaby, Kelli Hand and Amp Fiddler in recent years.
“An idea like MODEM started feeling much more necessary,” he said. “What entity here is uplifting and preserving that legacy?”
Techno music, born in Detroit at the hands of young Black artists, was “a sound that changed the world,” as Thornton attested. MODEM plans to cast a broad net, he said, also recognizing hip-hop artists such as J. Dilla and Eminem.
He cited the Motown Museum, now undergoing its own $75 million expansion, as a guiding light.
“Detroit deserves world-class institutions, and we deserve to have our music and culture celebrated,” he said. “It just makes sense.”
Updates on the techno museum’s status and fundraising will be posted at modemdet.com.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit techno museum is moving forward, despite pause in Packard plan
Reporting by Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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