Magnes Announces Senior Staff Retirements

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life announces the retirement of Dr. Francesco Spagnolo, Curator, and Julie Franklin, Registrar and Rights and Reproductions Manager. Both will step down from their roles on July 1, 2025, after twenty years of transformational leadership and close collaboration. Together, they have stewarded one of the most dynamic, accessible, and internationally recognized Jewish museum collections in the world.

“Without Francesco’s visionary curatorial leadership and Julie’s steadfast commitment to care for every item in the collection, the Magnes simply would not be the outstanding academic and community resource that it is today,” said Magnes Executive Director Hannah Weisman, having witnessed their dedication to the collection and respect for the communities it represents. “This is a bittersweet moment—Francesco and Julie have set the bar for museum professionalism at the highest level. I am grateful to them for positioning the Magnes for continued growth and wish them success and joy in their next endeavors.” 

Joining the staff of the Judah L. Magnes Museum in 2005, Francesco Spagnolo played a central role in its move to the University of California, Berkeley in 2010. Since then, he has served as the intellectual and curatorial heart of the Magnes, where he has curated 38 exhibitions and over 200 public programs, mentored close to 100 students through the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program, and taught innovative undergraduate and graduate courses. His discipline-spanning work has brought to life the depth and breadth of Jewish history, art, music, texts, religious practices, and culture.

“This is a bittersweet moment—Francesco and Julie have set the bar for museum professionalism at the highest level. I am grateful to them for positioning the Magnes for continued growth and wish them success and joy in their next endeavors.” — Hannah Weisman, Magnes Executive Director

With doctoral degrees from the University of Milan (Philosophy/Aesthetics) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Musicology), and expertise in Jewish studies, music, and digital humanities, Spagnolo has been an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Music and affiliated with the UC Berkeley Center for Jewish Studies, Center for the Study of Religion, Institute for European Studies, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Othering & Belonging Institute. His courses—such as Performing Texts: Music, Liturgy and Jewish Life; Jewish Nightlife; and Mapping Diasporas—reflect his commitment to collaborative and experiential learning, often engaging students directly with collections materials. During his tenure, he also published over 20 scholarly essays and book chapters. 

Spagnolo’s curatorial practice has blended scholarship, storytelling, and technology. He spearheaded the adoption of the Magnes’s first collections management database and launched digital humanities initiatives. He helped fundraise for museum operations and secured landmark acquisitions that more than doubled the size of the collection, including the Mark and Peachy Levy Family Judaica Collection (2016), the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection (2017), the Roman Vishniac Archive (2018), and the Berman-Bloch Collection of Israeli Art (2019). Among the exhibitions Spagnolo curated, In Real Times. Arthur Szyk: Art & Human Rights (1926–1951) opened at the Magnes in January 2020, and traveled to the National World War II Museum in 2022 and the Fairfield University Art Museum in 2023, reaching an audience of more than 310,000 people. 

“Along with the thrill of establishing the Magnes at UC Berkeley as an innovative and unique institution, the chance of thinking together with faculty and students consolidated my global outlook on culture and the arts in ways that I would never have hoped for.” — Francesco Spagnolo

“Along with the thrill of establishing the Magnes at UC Berkeley as an innovative and unique institution, the chance of thinking together with faculty and students consolidated my global outlook on culture and the arts in ways that I would never have hoped for,” shared Spagnolo. 

Spagnolo will bring his expertise to the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah (MEIS), where he will serve on the curatorial team for the museum’s new core exhibition, tracing approximately 2,100 years of history, and hold visiting professorships at national and international universities. He will remain based in the Bay Area where he continues his tenure as Scholar-in-Residence for the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. 

Working collaboratively with Spagnolo, Julie Franklin has been essential to the preservation, care, and accessibility of the Magnes’s permanent collection. Franklin arrived at the Judah L. Magnes Museum in 2005 with more than 20 years of experience as a registrar and collections manager at the San Jose Museum of Art, The Mexican Museum, Treasure Island Museum, and the California Crafts Museum. 

Franklin has managed every aspect of collections care at the Magnes, ensuring that the 60,000 objects, artworks, archival holdings, books, and ephemera are not only preserved to the highest standards but also available for teaching, research, and exhibition. She planned and managed all logistics for assessing and moving the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection and the Roman Vishniac Archive. Franklin has expanded the museum’s reach across digital platforms and academic publications as the museum’s Rights and Reproductions Manager. She has helped train the next generation of cultural heritage professionals, supervising at least 20 graduate interns and teaching registration and collections management courses for the San Francisco State University Museum Studies program, from which she holds a master’s degree. She also holds a BA in cultural anthropology (SFSU) and a BFA in painting (Ohio State University). 

“This collection has become a part of my DNA; in caring for the Magnes’s collections, I hope I have respectfully given back to a community that welcomed me with open arms and treated me like family.” — Julie Franklin

“This collection has become a part of my DNA; in caring for the Magnes’s collections, I hope I have respectfully given back to a community that welcomed me with open arms and treated me like family,” reflected Franklin.

Following her retirement, Franklin will return to her own art practice full time and run her miniature (to scale 1:12) art gallery, Twelve 2 One, in Oakland, CA. She looks forward to learning Spanish and studying for certification as an art appraiser. 

Spagnolo and Franklin’s partnership has been foundational to the Magnes’s success over the last two decades. Their collaboration has combined ambitious curatorial practice with exemplary collections stewardship, resulting in an institution that is both deeply rooted in academic values and widely accessible to global audiences.

A national search for the Magnes’s next Curator will begin in fall 2025.