She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1986, and in 1991 became a Royal Academician. She later temporarily resigned from the Academy, following the broadcast of a BBC Omnibus television documentary about the preparations for the controversial Sensation exhibition hosted by the Academy in 1997 show-casing the Young British Artists. The documentary, according to Ayres, presented an unfair view of the older members of the Academy. She objected to the inclusion of Marcus Harvey's portrait of serial killer Myra Hindley in the exhibition.
