Denise Murrell

[7] While still working in business, Murrell began to take classes in art history at Hunter College and earned a Master's as well as PhD in the subject at Columbia University.

[6] During her classes, she was often surprised by the way her professors failed to discuss black figures in famous works such as Édouard Manet's 1863 painting Olympia, and the experience drove her to learn more about the African diaspora in Western art.

She began specializing in several areas, including African American and diasporan art, Henri Matisse, the School of Paris, Édouard Manet, and Impressionism.

[8] The research led to her first exhibition, staged at the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University, called Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today.

The New York Times reported on her hiring as "noteworthy" given the traditional lack of curators of color at the museum, and a sign of a change in philosophy under the Met's new director Max Hollein.

[2] That year, the Met announced that Murrell was curating a large exhibition on the Harlem Renaissance that will run from February 25, 2024 through July 28, 2024,[17] and include work by painter William H. Johnson, photographer James Van Der Zee, and sculptor Augusta Savage.