The Finance of Museums
My first full time job after graduating was as Education Officer of the National Gallery of Ireland. It was a coup to land a full time job in 1993 with a Degree in History of Art, when the country’s unemployment rate was 17%.
The announcement of the discovery of a Caravaggio in Ireland, three weeks after I started was another great piece of luck in my career. Even then the job was a numbers game, organising tours for 10,000 people a week, and setting up an outreach programme so 50,000 people a year around Ireland could learn about this amazing art discovery tale. In the intervening years, and training in accountancy, I always looked back at that role as inspirational in telling the story of art, and making the numbers work in the background.
Caravaggio unveiled at The National Gallery of Ireland, photo Joe St Leger, The Irish Times
A key part of my current work is to share expertise around not-for-profit finance with cultural managers, clients and MA students studying cultural management. It occurred to me while I went through the ACCA route how little of accountancy training focusses on the economic models of not-for-profit organisations. Some of the worlds’ most successful organisations, have financial matrices that are jaw dropping in their simplicity - yet not widely emulated. Let’s take the ‘museum financial model’ for example. An organisation that often resides in a historic jewel of a building, with a heritage collection to be shared with generations. From an accountancy point of view these are stunning assets, that are not depreciated, in fact their value often appreciates, while they continue to generate revenue - for generations! Why aren’t more accountants (and others!) inspired by this model? Let’s take it a step further…once some museums have existed for a number of generations, they become so cash-rich that they have to set up investment divisions. Now, the museum can fund their operations from the interest on their investments, and use other revenue to enhance the collection, expand the business, and diversify globally. What has the Guggenheim Bilbao done for Bilbao? What has the Victoria & Albert Museum in Dundee done for Dundee? While the financial assets grow, further collections, exhibitions and heritage joy can be shared with further generations of visitors, (meanwhile creating multitudes of ancillary jobs around the museum).
What’s not to love about that?
Join me on 10th February 2026 for a Webinar Finance for Non-Financial Staff run by The Irish Museums Association.
