Downtown Franklin has increasingly become the center of creativity in the city.
Murals painted by local residents cover downtown walls. Art-centric businesses have popped up in empty storefronts. Festivals and special events showcase performers, visual artists and others.
For a longtime Franklin business specializing in art, it was time to move closer to the action.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
Generation Art and Frame has relocated its business from Northwood Plaza off of US 31 to the heart of the downtown square. Their new location on North Main Street is just steps away from well-known landmarks such as the Artcraft Theatre and the courthouse.
Though they loved their previous home, the owners of the business wanted to tap into the creative spirit blossoming downtown.
“It was important to be near businesses that are similar to us, so we get the kind of people who like art and like entertainment and like the more creative things,” said Joshua Hendrickson, whose family founded Generation.
In the store’s first big event since moving downtown, Generation is hosting its annual Luke Buck art show. The gallery space has been packed with Buck’s scenic landscapes and wildlife paintings, which will be hanging until Nov. 1.
“We really appreciate him as an artist. We know what he can bring, and we’ve seen how people respond to his work. We know how much his work means to people, his paintings of local scenes and places that remind them of their home,” Hendrickson said.
Generation Art and Frame had been located in Northwood Plaza for nearly 25 years. The store was well known to the public, and the Hendrickson family was happy with what they had there.
There was a lot of loyalty and comfort with that location, Hendrickson said.
Still, they could sense the shift in energy that downtown Franklin had been attracting in recent years.
“We could just see, the kind of business that we are and the kind of business we want to be would be better suited here,” Hendrickson said.
The family searched for an available storefront, one that had the visibility and space that the business needed for not only framing but for the art classes that Generation hosts.
With the help of Franklin officials, they found what seemed to be an ideal spot on North Main Street. The 1920s-era building had originally been the city’s post office, and a number of businesses had occupied the space in recent years.
“It’s a location that everyone is familiar with,” Hendrickson said. “Even though we relocated, it’s an area that everyone knows.”
The Hendricksons were able to start moving in Sept. 1, and opened in the new downtown location on Sept. 17. They not only had to move 25 years’ worth of accumulated items at their old location, but reconfigure lighting and the space they had to best serve a framing and art business.
They also had the opportunity to reevaluate practices and setup in the business that they hadn’t considered before.
“You get comfortable in one place, and you kind of have to figure out what things we were doing because those were the right ways we were doing them, or if it was because we’d always done them,” Hendrickson said.
The past month has been spent settling in. With that all taken of, it seemed fitting to make Buck’s yearly show the first major event at the new location.
Generation has hosted a special Buck show every year since the mid-1990s. The Hendrickson family has deep ties to the Nineveh artist — Buck has given art lessons to various members of the family and is good friends with them.
That familiarity made it easy to stage the show, even in a new location.
“This is a good one to start with, because we are comfortable with how it’s run. We’ve gotten pretty efficient in letting everyone know what to expect,” Hendrickson said. “We hope to do more, but this will be the first event here.”
