The Armenian Museum of America is pleased to announce the appointment of Sarah E. Hayes as Deputy Director, expanding her leadership role at the Museum and positioning her to support the institution’s continued growth, strategic development, and national visibility.
Hayes has served as the Museum’s Director of Development since 2023, leading fundraising, membership, grant management, donor relations, corporate and foundation partnerships, development communications, and fundraising events. In her new role, she will retain leadership of the Museum’s development program while taking on broader responsibilities across the institution.
As Deputy Director, Hayes will work closely with President, Michele Kolligian and Executive Director Jason Sohigian, the Board of Trustees, staff, volunteers, donors, members, and community partners to advance the Museum’s mission and strengthen its financial and organizational sustainability. She will provide leadership and coordination across exhibitions, programs, communications, facilities, visitor experience, and administrative functions, helping ensure that the Museum’s activities are aligned with its strategic priorities.
Hayes will also serve as a key representative of the Armenian Museum of America in external relationships, institutional meetings, events, and community partnerships, and will support the Executive Director in advancing the Museum’s vision and long-term goals.
“Sarah has been an extraordinary leader and advocate for the Museum,” said Jason Sohigian, Executive Director of the Armenian Museum of America. “Her vision, energy, relationships, and deep commitment to our mission have made an enormous impact on the institution. We are thrilled to expand her leadership role as Deputy Director and look forward to all that we will accomplish together.”
During her tenure as Director of Development, Hayes has helped strengthen the Museum’s fundraising and membership programs while supporting an ambitious period of exhibitions, cultural programming, educational initiatives, and institutional growth. She has also played an important role in securing significant loans and cultivating relationships with leading museums, cultural institutions, and private collectors for the Museum’s landmark Arshile Gorky exhibition, helping bring works of Gorky’s art to the Armenian Museum of America from respected institutions and private collections.
Hayes’ professional relationship with Sohigian extends well beyond their work at the Museum. The two first worked together in 2007 through the Armenia Tree Project, where Hayes went on to spend 13 years as West Coast Operations Manager. Their longstanding professional partnership has continued through their shared commitment to Armenia, environmental stewardship, cultural preservation, and nonprofit leadership.
“I am deeply honored to take on this new role at the Armenian Museum of America,” said Sarah E. Hayes, Deputy Director. “The past several years have been an incredibly exciting time for the Museum, and I am grateful to our staff, Board, donors, members, artists, partners, and community who make this work possible. Having had the opportunity to work with Jason since 2007, I am especially excited to continue building on our shared commitment to Armenia and to the growth and impact of this remarkable institution.”
Hayes brings to the Museum a longstanding personal and professional commitment to Armenia, Armenian culture, environmental stewardship, and the nonprofit sector. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Armenia from 2005–2007, where she worked as an environmental education volunteer.
She holds a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Studio Art from Eastern Connecticut State University. Her background in environmental education, nonprofit leadership, the arts, and Armenian cultural engagement has informed her work at the Museum and her commitment to connecting Armenian heritage with broader audiences.
Hayes lives in Connecticut with her daughter and their two dogs. She remains deeply connected to Armenia and to the Armenian-American community, bringing to her work both professional expertise and a personal commitment to preserving and celebrating Armenian culture.
This is a facing-page bilingual (Armenian and English) edition of Tenny Arlen’s (1991–2015) book of Armenian poetry posthumously published in 2021 under the title ԿԻՐՔՈՎ ԸՍԵԼՈՒ՝ ԻՆՉՈ՞Ւ ՀՈՍ ԵՄ. It includes the original and translation of everything found in the Armenian edition, including an appendix of the authors poetic prose works, as well as an afterword by her professor Dr. Hagop Gulludjian in which he reflects upon Tenny's creative journey—from being a new learner of the language to her remarkable achievement of having produced the first full-length work of creative literature written in Armenian by an American-born writer. New to this edition are a second appendix with three newly discovered writings found among Tenny’s papers, a third appendix with images of the first drafts of eight of her poems (some showing Dr. Gulludjian’s edits), and a new afterword by Arthur Ipek in which he reflects on Tenny's poetry as an example of exophony (creative writing in a non-native language), highlights some principal themes in her work, and evaluates her place in the Armenian literary tradition.
(Paperback)
AWARD
Winner of the 2026 Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prize for Excellence in Armenian Studies for a translation published in 2025
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
“Hauntingly beautiful poems… A sparkling mind, mature and sophisticated well beyond her youthful years. I remember Tenny as among a handful of the most brilliant students I have encountered throughout my life.”
– Sebouh David Aslanian, UCLA Professor and Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History
“While respecting the classic writers, Tenny was not a slave to their style or ideas, but with that same self-confidence which was the hallmark of all her endeavors, she fashioned her own instrument to be the vessel of her thoughts. As in their own time, Zahrad and Khrakhuni opened a new path for Armenian poetry, Tenny’s creative work marks a new phase in the literary history of the Diaspora… Tenny has become a pioneer by her literary path.”
– Peter Cowe, Narekatsi Professor of Armenian Studies at UCLA
“Miracles do happen.”
– Arpi Sarafian, Armenian Mirror-Spectator
“To describe Tenny Arlen as a trailblazer would be to bestow that term upon the artist without exaggerating its definition.”
– David Garyan, poet, journalist, and editor of LAdige literary journal
“Magnificent, profound, and profoundly beautiful writings… This book, Tenny’s work, has illuminated the creative path for all of us.”
– Alexia Hatun, writer and doctoral student, UCLA
“A watershed moment for the Armenian literary tradition… In addition to inaugurating a return to the classics of Armenian literature, this collection simultaneously ushers in a new moment for the Armenian literary tradition, in the idiom of the New World. In this New World, there are Armenian speakers who might be completely new to the language, yet may have much to contribute to the creation of works in Armenian… Both a profound soul and linguistic dexterity characterize Arlen as a poet. Her extant work is a manifestation of a poetic consciousness unique to her.”
– Arthur Ipek, poet and literary scholar
“From the very beginning, Tenny attempted to create in Armenian, even when she did not understand much of the language. She understood her journey toward the language as a creative process, a means and a way to achieve selfactualization through creation… Vitality, vigor, revitalization of the language—all these things happen not by honoring it as a sacred relic, but by playing with it, wrestling, flirting, making love with it, in the words of the title of this book, by saying passionately, why am I here?
– Hagop Gulludjian, UCLA Senior Lecturer of Western Armenian, Kachigian Family Lecturer in Armenian Language and Culture