Meet Museum School alumna, Hayley Pires, a native Newporter who first came to the Newport Art Museum with her great-grandmother, Ruth (Hodosh) Abramson. Ruth, a longtime member of the museum, enjoyed painting landscapes and still-lifes as well as attending the Tuesday evening class with teaching artist Marian Carey.

Following in the footsteps of her great-grandmother, Hayley – an artist herself – spoke fondly of attending Museum events with Ruth and participating in many Museum classes over the years. From learning about Jackson Pollock to creating sculptures from recycled materials, the Museum School was Hayley’s outlet to “be weird…to be in a space where I could be myself and use my own creative process.”

Hayley, after a day creating at the Museum School

She recalls being someone who has always thought outside the box. When Pires was in middle school, one of her teachers remarked on her creative process. If Hayley and her peers were asked to sketch a picture of their desks, while her classmates would take the approach of drawing their desks from the table downwards, she could see Hayley being someone who could get under the desk and look at it from a different perspective.

Pulling inspiration from everyday objects such as canned tomatoes – as she explained during her interview with museum staff – Hayley also reminisced of her time at Rogers High School where she was able to fill her schedule with graphics classes which in turn opened her eyes to the world of branding and packaging design. Before pursuing her undergraduate degree at New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology, she also participated in Newport Art Museum’s Museum Studies Experience Program (MuSE) where she made prom dresses out of duct tape. At FIT, Hayley turned her interests to packaging design, graduated in 2014, and is now working as a freelance brand and packaging designer.

Hayley studied and worked with studios in NYC for over ten years. During the pandemic, she decided to return to her roots in Rhode Island and take up residence in Newport. Her hope is to reacquaint herself at Newport Art Museum as well as make a difference in her community by working with local businesses as a freelancer specializing in brand design and social media marketing.