Writer: Michael Morain
Mainframe Studios has chosen Julia Franklin to serve as its next executive director. Starting Dec. 1, she will lead the thriving arts hub on downtown’s north side, which opened in 2017 and is now the biggest nonprofit art studio building in the country.
“I really want to champion artists in our community, so they feel like they’re essential,” Franklin told dsm. “I also want everyone who comes into the building to find art that interests them, that represents them and that connects them to what they’re feeling inside and with the world.”
Mainframe’s board of directors chose Franklin after a five-month search, prompted by the departure of its founding executive director Siobhan Spain, who left the role in June.
“We are fortunate to have extraordinary talent in our own backyard,” Mainframe founder Justin Mandelbaum said in a press release Monday morning. “We interviewed candidates from coast to coast and culturally rich cities from around the country. Many were amazed at what we have created here, and all had impressive credentials, but it was Julia who had everything we wished for and more.”
Franklin currently works as the community investment specialist at Bravo Greater Des Moines, where she manages a $4 million annual grant program that invests in more than 85 arts and culture nonprofits in Central Iowa. She also teaches art appreciation at Des Moines Area Community College.
Over the past few years, she has launched community-based programs to promote the arts in rural Iowa. She co-wrote a successful grant application to fund public artwork about water quality and has led efforts to install artwork along bike trails and other public spaces.
Previously, she taught art at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, where she helped guide the construction and operations at the Helene Center for the Visual Arts. Later she managed the Anderson Gallery at Drake University, where she created inclusive and accessible programs and exhibitions.
A Texas native, Franklin is also a practicing artist who often uses found objects – old photos, clothing, ephemera – to create sculptures and multimedia portraits that explore memory and family connections. The Iowa Arts Council named her an Iowa Artist Fellow in 2018.
Franklin has maintained a studio at Mainframe since 2018 and has gotten to know many of the other tenants, more than 200 artists in 180 studios.
“I’m always inspired by the other work that I see,” she said. “Mainframe offers artists a way to connect with each other and with patrons and guests. There’s just nothing like it.”
