We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Samantha and Kate Wilkerson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Samantha and Kate below.

Samantha and Kate, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

The retail art business is definitely seasonal and is at the mercy of the economy. During lean times, customers aren’t always concerned with purchasing quality artwork. When someone buys an original artwork at our gallery, the artist is receiving a good chunk of the profits. This is something that you don’t get with larger stores carrying mass-produced art prints. Though it may be less expensive, the artists are not benefiting from the sale of their work and the artwork itself won’t increase in value. We like to remind our customers that quality artwork is a good investment.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

The Annapolis Marine Art Gallery has been on Dock street since 1978 and owned by Kate and Samantha Wilkerson for the last two years. The gallery offers marine artwork of all mediums, subjects and sizes. We host events and support local artists through our exhibitions and daily retail. In the 45 years the gallery has existed, we’ve cultivated many great relationships with local artists and collectors that has allowed our reputation to stay strong.
We are proud that we have so many types of artwork to offer at all different price points.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

When we bought the gallery two years ago, social media was used here and there but not utilized as much of a tool. We started following relevant pages, using hashtags and interacting with followers and similar accounts to ours. We’ve been able to sell artwork through social media alone and it has been a great way to advertise upcoming events!

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

We purchased the Annapolis Marine Art Gallery in June of 2022. Samantha worked for the previous owner for a year and so we had in-depth knowledge of how to do business and what has worked in the past. It really came down to us having a good relationship with the previous owner and being able to step in when they were ready to step back. We also heavily relied on their expertise in the first few weeks and staying in touch certainly helped us make the transition easier.

Contact Info:

• Website: annapolismarineart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annapolis_marineartgallery/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ANNAPMARART
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/annapolis-marine-art-gallery/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/art_annapolis

Image Credits
Berry Schur