Ms. Hughes specializes in Canadian art and its history. After almost two decades of gallery experience, she currently leads the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in British Columbia as the Chief Curator. For eight years before this, she was the Senior Curator for Historical Art at The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG). She was also a member of the faculty at the University of Winnipeg teaching Canadian art history. Recent exhibitions at WAG included "Andy Warhol Larger than Life," and the independently curated and ongoing "Emily Carr and her Contemporaries."

She holds an Honours BA from the University of Toronto and an MA, specializing in Canadian art, from Queen's University.