At first glance, finance in the arts resembles finance anywhere: balancing budgets, making accurate forecasts, scrutinising reporting. But behind the numbers lies an unusual sense of purpose.
That’s because finance professionals in the arts are also heavily engaged in safeguarding public funding, spending donor money responsibly and generating new income. The overall goal is to preserve culture by securing their organisations’ futures.
‘It’s about the impact you have on other people’s lives’
More than a career move
Bloc Digital CFO Mo Suleman FCCA’s move into the arts sector was not a reflection of a long-held passion for the arts. But becoming FD of Derby Museums after years in hospitality, he discovered a wealth of untapped potential.
‘I thought I’d stay there for a year or two,’ he says. He ended up working there for a decade.
Derby Museums had just become an independent charity, and needed commercial thinking alongside financial expertise. As its new FD, Suleman introduced industry-standard reporting, and transformed the organisation’s finances by opening cafés and offering venue hire.
‘I think it’s the combination of technical skills with the impact on people’s lives that really kept me at the museum,’ he says. ‘It’s not about how well the museum was doing financially, it’s about the impact you have on other people’s lives.’
‘It’s about making artistic ambition and financial prudence work together’
It was a similar story for Tonye Vianana FCCA, CFO at Shakespeare’s Globe. Finance was always her career plan, rather than the arts, but she found herself completely won over by the sector.
‘I’ve really enjoyed working in the arts because you can see the originality of creativity, which is something that AI can never really touch,’ she says. ‘The drive is to get finance to be an enabler. It’s how artistic ambition and financial prudence can work together to propel Shakespeare’s Globe into the future.’
Finance as an enabler
Challenges in this sector are growing more complex: rising costs, uncertain funding and shifting audiences mean the finance leader must keep their organisation sustainable without undermining its mission.
Suleman’s experience shows how this can be achieved. The extra income he generated let Derby Museums expand education, improve community engagement and stage exhibitions that would otherwise have been impossible to put on.
At Shakespeare’s Globe too, commercial thinking sits alongside cultural responsibility. It is reliant on ticket sales and visitor income, and financial resilience protects the organisation’s artistic ambition.
‘You’re answerable not just to your board but also the Public Accounts Committee’
For Mark Sherry FCCA, head of finance and procurement at the National Museum of Ireland, governance and accountability shape almost every financial decision. Museums must show not just that money was spent wisely but also that the process was transparent and compliant.
‘You must always bear in mind that you’re answerable not just to your board, but also to your government department and the Public Accounts Committee,’ Sherry says.
That scrutiny extends to unusual projects. During a refurbishment of the museum’s natural history wing, Sherry oversaw the relocation of a whale skeleton, which drew national media attention. ‘A piece of procurement and a supplier contract for services suddenly became an object of great public interest,’ he recalls.
The experience underlines a distinction for finance professionals in the sector: they safeguard public confidence in institutions preserving national heritage.
‘There’s a lot of financial stewardship because you’re dealing with donor funds’
For Oladapo Adekolu FCCA, director of finance at the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, stewardship takes another form. Having worked in banking, manufacturing, healthcare and logistics, he now oversees finances funded through philanthropy.
This changes the accountability approach. ‘There’s a lot of transparency here, a lot of financial stewardship because you’re dealing with donor funds,’ he explains. ‘Impact reporting shows how funds have been used and the impact they’ve been able to make.’
Capabilities
Strong technical skills remain the foundation of every finance role – planning, forecasting and cashflow management matter as much in a museum as in manufacturing – but technical expertise alone is no longer enough.
Finance professionals must increasingly influence decisions, communicate with stakeholders and act as strategic partners beyond finance itself. For Vianana, that means moving beyond the spreadsheet stereotype. ‘I’m looking for expertise that combines excellent financial skills with people skills, emotional intelligence and a willingness to engage with the business. That makes finance business partnering easier, without requiring a full culture shift.’
Finance teams should help colleagues understand what the numbers mean, not just report what happened, and be able to challenge assumptions with confidence. ‘It’s not just what the spreadsheets tell me,’ Vianana explains. ‘These are not conversations you can have by simply writing notes. There has to be a voice to it.’
The big achievement wasn’t a new financial system but culture change
Suleman shares this view. He says his biggest achievement wasn’t putting in a new financial system, but changing the culture. He found that departments were spending any budget surplus to protect future funding, and breaking that mindset took patience, communication and trust. ‘I kept messaging them to say, “If one year you need more, don’t worry, speak to me and I will find that budget. There’s no need for you to protect it.”’
He introduced collaborative budgets, allowing budget holders to shape plans rather than have them imposed, plus informal staff gatherings to help break down departmental barriers.
For Adekolu, communication extends beyond colleagues to donors, philanthropists and trustees, making interpersonal skills as valuable as financial knowledge. ‘It’s not just about reporting,’ he says. ‘You’re dealing with donors, you’re dealing with patrons – you need to be able to engage them appropriately. You can’t just be all about the numbers. You need to be able to warm up to people appropriately.’
Sherry too believes that a publicly funded institution means responding to multiple stakeholder groups with different needs. ‘There are different stakeholder groups and each of those have different information needs. We have to make sure we can deliver to those information needs on the basis of the financial records we maintain.’
Purpose brings perspective
As finance in the arts evolves, perhaps the biggest difference lies in the visibility of the work. Elsewhere, finance professionals can spend months improving processes without seeing the result. In the arts, impact is often immediate.
For Suleman, stronger finances let Derby Museums invest in exhibitions, education and community programmes that directly benefitted visitors.
‘You solve big problems, so your impact becomes visible’
For Adekolu, good stewardship of donor funding helps expand a leading Canadian cultural institution, while impact reporting shows how contributions change lives. ‘Where you consistently solve problems that matter, your impact becomes visible. My contribution becomes indispensable.’
Vianana believes the arts also offer something valuable in an era of rapid technological change. ‘The originality of creativity is something AI can never really achieve.’ Protecting that creativity while staying financially resilient lets finance combine commercial discipline with cultural purpose.
Sherry finds the sector rewarding for those interested in history and culture, and hopes new internships draw young professionals into finance-heritage careers. ‘It’s a very rewarding sector,’ he says. ‘If you have an interest in the area, there’s more than likely a role for you here.’
More information
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