Founded in 1903 and one of Boston's most important cultural institutions, the museum is a highly unique installation of Gardner’s private collection, considered to be a work of art in totality.
Early in her career, Hawley worked as a research associate with the National Urban League and then with the Ford Foundation Study in Leadership in Public Education.
Hawley expanded the Museum’s staff and board of trustees; created curatorial positions and a board of overseers; mounted scholarly exhibitions centered on the art from the collection; established an Artist-in-Residency program and showcased the artists’ work; launched new programs in music, education, and landscape; spearheaded the modernization of crucial infrastructure improvements in the historic palace; completed several full–gallery restorations and led successful fundraising efforts to give the Museum a solid endowment.
As part of a $180 million capital campaign, she oversaw the effort to build an addition designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano.
On March 18, 1990, within 6 months of Hawley taking the director position, two thieves, dressed as Boston police officers, talked their way into the Museum and stole 13 masterpieces valued at $500 million, including works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Manet, and Degas.
[8] In 1994 at Hawley’s urging, Senator Ted Kennedy helped pass legislation that made art theft a federal crime and increased the statute of limitations from five to fifteen years.
Legislation was passed enabling the culture sector to participate in borrowing from the state bonding agencies that continues to assist in the financing of capital projects today.