With a client list that includes Colin Farrell and U2, Gaby Smyth knows a thing or two about accounting for the arts. A sole practitioner, he has successfully developed a niche practice over the last 10 years, and currently employs a staff of 10 in his offices on Dublin's Merrion Road. Active in Dramsoc as a Science student in UCD in the late 1970s, Gaby was musical director for a number of student productions, and subsequently worked in the Project Arts Centre in the early 80s. He maintains a personal interest in, and involvement with, the arts, and is well known for his talent at the piano. He is musical director of The Tribunals Show, the hilarious revue with Joe Taylor, Malcolm Douglas, and Susie Kennedy that is based around the Flood and Moriarty Tribunals. Chairman of Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Gaby serves on the boards of a number of Irish arts organisations, including the Dublin Theatre Festival and the Dublin International Film Festival.
Common Grammar
That personal interest and involvement in the arts sector, gives Gaby Smyth what he calls a 'common grammar' with his clients that is fundamental to delivering the holistic services he provides. Unlike many other businesses, he explains, artists are not often motivated by profit, and when it comes to dealing with personal finance, for the most part they just want somebody they trust to look after their affairs for them.
Accountants don't have a reputation for being good communicators. Perhaps we're not great listeners either, and when you deal with people for whom expression, and self-expression in particular, is such a vital force, if you're not a good listener, then the relationship just won't work. Knowledge of accounting is only part of the service an adviser provides. 'A musician client has often said to me, 'Looking after my affairs isn't rocket science'. To which I reply, 'You're right - it's much more complicated than that'. It is not just the accounting content that matters, it is the context.
That level of responsibility and involvement in the personal affairs of clients, for whom financial insecurity is an inherent part of their work, must present particulars challenges for the adviser.
It can be difficult to find yourself working with a talented artist, at the height of their powers, who is struggling to make a case for a shared ownership scheme with Dublin Corporation for a house. Artists are often significantly undervalued and, of course, a bank or building society finds it difficult to see them as low risk.
Highly-geared sector
At a wider level, arts organisations too often operate on tight budgets that make long-term planning difficult.
It's a very highly geared sector. A small downturn in the economy can result in a very large downturn in funding for the arts, explains Gaby.
Recently, the Arts Council has had its capacity to provide multi-annual funding severely restricted, and that is presenting challenges for many arts organisations.
A year is impossibly short-term, if you're engaged in planning - you can't plan for something as straightforward as purchasing a touring vehicle for a touring company, for example - so that kind of uncertainty is deeply unsettling for arts organisations.
The argument, of course, is that it is difficult to justify spending on the arts sector at a time when hospital beds are being closed down.
In the face of health crises, arguments against funding the arts are well-made and difficult to refute, but I still believe that the arts should be supported, and that those that are funded, are there on merit. Generally speaking, the public's appetite for the arts isn't diminished. It's just the capacity to spend on the arts. So the ordinary show-going, or theatre-going, gallery-going, reading public doesn't diminish in a downturn. What diminishes is the funding.
Governance
What about developments in governance and compliance - is that an issue for the arts sector?
From a compliance point of view, the directors of the boards of arts organisations - who are typically unpaid, non-executive directors - are often anxious, because they are in the public eye. There is the responsibility of dealing with public money, and generally speaking, many of them would be financially aware - aware enough to know that they have a burden of responsibility as directors. It is difficult for boards to preside over very significant cutbacks that jeopardise the entire organisation. These cutbacks present financial, legal and moral dilemmas for board members, in successive years of deficit. That causes us all a degree of anxiety, it must be said.
It is always good to meet with people who combine their personal interests with their professional career. Gaby Smyth has no regrets about his decision to specialise in a tough sector.
It's a small community - highly social, good-humoured and generally well-intentioned - and I'm glad to be part of it. People are genuinely supportive, and have pretty much a single objective - they want to see good art - and there is nothing but good will and good spirits when it happens.
The Tribunals Show / Flood & Moriarty Revued with Joe Taylor, Malcolm Douglas, Susie Kennedy and Gaby Smyth is part of this year's Boyle Arts Festival playing on Friday 1st August at the Royal Hotel 8pm. It is also playing at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin from 7 -9th August.
Gaby Smyth, FCA, was interviewed by Daisy Downes.