If the opportunity came 30 years ago – or even 20 or 10 – Karin Wilkes may not have jumped head first into the art business, an industry she admits is rife with uncertainty.

The longtime Ellsworth resident has watched her two daughters grow up. She has watched her husband, Michael, build a steady drywall business. She has even started a marketing and graphic design firm of her own, which she has run for the last dozen years.

At 53, Wilkes is a little more secure now than in her younger days, both financially and in business savvy; she now has the time and means to dream.

So when the chance came along about a year ago to purchase a historic building in downtown Ellsworth and turn it into an art gallery, Wilkes took it.

The timing couldn’t have been more right for her to start living a dream.

“We have a lot invested in this and there is a bit of a risk,” Wilkes admitted this week. “But I’ve always wanted to pursue an art gallery.”

She paused for a moment, then added, “If you’re going to go down, it might as well be doing something like this.”

Last summer, Wilkes and her husband bought a 167-year-old building – the city’s first courthouse and at one time Ellsworth’s high school – which sits at the corner of Bucksport and Surry roads.

The city had been looking to sell, put the property out to bid, and then selected Wilkes’ proposal ahead of several others.

Since then, the Wilkeses have been busy bringing the building up to speed, with Michael taking breaks between his own jobs to finish the renovations.

“It’s been fun until the last few weeks,” he joked.

Things have gotten a little hectic recently – the Courthouse Gallery is scheduled to open on July 20.

“We literally haven’t stopped since last summer, and we still have a lot to do, so it’s a little stressful,” Karin Wilkes said. “But it’s starting to get exciting.”

A city on display

The several large white columns on the front of the Courthouse Gallery stand out on its perch atop Bridge Hill, hinting at the history that lies inside.

The Wilkeses have done all they can to preserve that past and said it’s one of the reasons the building appealed so much to them.

“One of the reasons the city liked our plan is because our restorations wouldn’t really alter the building that much,” Karin Wilkes said. “Any other plan might have had to do a lot of chopping, but we want the open space.”

The main floor of the two-story building invites art enthusiasts into an expansive room with pristine white paint, installed track lighting and high ceilings. A staircase leads to the second floor that has two large and four small rooms, all with original fir wood wainscoting, dramatic natural light and empty walls.

Soon those walls will be filled with the original work of 18 local artists.

The inaugural show at the Courthouse Gallery, titled “Ellsworth Revisited: The Artist’s View,” will be on display starting July 20 and will run through the end of August.

The show will feature an original landscape painting of Ellsworth done by early 20th century impressionist painter Carroll Sargent Tyson.

His piece was the inspiration for the first show, and each of the 18 local artists was asked to produce a piece on Ellsworth in addition to their individual displays.

“We have received so much support from the beginning, and it’s so important,” Wilkes said. “That’s why we wanted to feature the city, as kind of a thank-you.”

Carl Little, an author and art expert from Mount Desert Island who will curate the first show with Wilkes, said having a place for so many artists to display their work is something Ellsworth has lacked.

“This was a special opportunity to work with the community to create this new gallery,” he said. “It’s going to be exciting to have a place like this in Ellsworth.”

A great business

While Wilkes admitted she doesn’t know all the ins and outs of running an art gallery, she has done her homework.

“I’ve interviewed gallery owners up and down the coast and it seems like the art scene really hasn’t taken hold in Ellsworth,” she said. “But we really need to start thinking of Ellsworth in those terms. There are so many great artists here.”

She also made a smart move in recruiting Little, who has had his finger on the pulse of Maine’s art scene for many years.

Little called Wilkes’ gallery ambitious and said he has “very high hopes for the success of the gallery.”

“I think that there certainly is a risk,” he said. “But we have so many small galleries in the area, and they have been around for a long time and do a great business. This really is a great state for artists.”

And the artists won’t mind having one more place to display their work.

“I think it’s a terrific opportunity for all of them,” Little said. “There already are a number of venues, but I know they’ll applaud any new places to showcase.”

The 3,500-square-foot space allows the Courthouse Gallery to provide a capacity that many other smaller local venues do not have.

And for each piece sold there, Wilkes will get a commission. So as long as there are artists, she figures she’ll be just fine.

“Hancock County has more artists per square mile than anywhere else in the state,” she pointed out.

But even if the Courthouse Gallery isn’t as successful as Wilkes has envisioned, she still has her design firm, and her husband has his business, too.

“We don’t have all our chips on the table, so we were able to take a little more risk,” she said.

“Honestly, I haven’t had time to work out all the ideas that I have,” she admitted. “But I have a lot of ideas.”