Meet the Staff

Denise Allen joined the staff of the department in 2014. Her area of specialty is Italian Renaissance sculpture, with a focus on the work of Benvenuto Cellini. As a curator at the Frick Collection (2003–2014), she curated six exhibitions dedicated to the art of the bronze statuette, including: Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Hill Collection (2014), Antico (2012), Andrea Riccio (2008), and European Bronzes from the Quentin Collection (2004). Denise was the associate curator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (1995–2002). She received her MA from the New York University Institute of Fine Arts in 1984.

Riva Arnold joined the department in 2023 as a Research Associate for Judaica. Riva’s areas of expertise include, Judaica, ritual textiles, synagogue interiors, and ornament. Before joining ESDA, she was an adjunct faculty member at Yeshiva University and the School of Visual Arts. Prior to completing her PhD at the University of Zürich, Riva interned at the Victoria & Albert Museum on the gallery refurbishment for the Medieval & Renaissance Galleries. She has worked on exhibitions and curatorial projects at the Museum of Arts and Design, the Museum of the City of New York, the Jewish Museum, and in the Department of Medieval Art at The Met. Riva received her MA in History of Design and Material Culture from the Royal College of Art in London and BA from the School of Visual Arts.

Roger Arrazcaeta Delgado joined the department in November 2023 as the Collections Management Associate. He was the Director of the Department of Archaeology at the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana (OHCH) in Havana, Cuba from 1993-2022. He oversaw archaeological research from the 16th to the 19th centuries in the Historical Center of Old Havana and at archaeological sites across the country. He is a graduate of the Institute of Museology of Cuba and has studied and trained in archeology at the Cuban Academy of Sciences and the University of the Basque Country. 

Wolf Burchard is curator of The Met’s British Galleries. Prior to joining ESDA in 2019, he was Furniture Research Curator at the National Trust and Curatorial Assistant at the Royal Collection. He earned his MA and PhD in art history from the Courtauld Institute, while co-curating The First Georgians at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace (2014). He is the author of The Sovereign Artist: Charles Le Brun and the Image of Louis XIV (2016) and curated Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts (2021) shown at The Met, the Wallace Collection and the Huntington. He is a trustee of the Attingham Trust, sat on the executive committees of the Furniture History Society, the Georgian Group, and on advisory boards at the Château de Versailles and the Mobilier national in Paris.

Elizabeth Cleland is responsible for post-medieval European textiles. Working at The Met since 2004, she curated Relative Values: The Cost of Art in the Northern Renaissance (2017-22), co-curating Grand Design: Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Renaissance Tapestry (2014-15) and The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England (2022-23). She was principal author of Grand Design's award-winning catalogue; co-edited Tapestry in the Baroque: New Aspects of Production and Patronage (2010); co-authored Tapestries from the Burrell Collection (2017) and Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de Medici's Valois Tapestries (2018). She studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art, receiving her MA and PhD as a British Academy scholar.

Pilar Ferrer joined the department in 2022 as the Assistant Administrator. She previously interned at The Met in the spring & summer of 2021 as an Adrienne Arsht intern in the Department of Egyptian Art. In ESDA, she provides support to the Curator-in-Charge, executes and coordinates the department’s daily administrative operations, and performs a wide range of clerical and administrative tasks including general office maintenance, external communications, and coordinating staff travel. Pilar works with Kristen Hudson to manage the department’s administrative operations, plan events for the Friends of ESDA, and track departmental spending. She received her BA in art history from Belmont University and MA in museum studies and art history from The City College of New York.

Sarah Gregory joined the department in 2023 as Coordinator for Friends Groups. She oversees the department’s special events, membership renewals, and provides concierge services for ESDA’s Visiting Committee, Wrightsman Fellows, and the Friends of ESDA. Sarah works closely with Sarah Lawrence, Kristen Hudson, and Pilar Ferrer to plan events, facilitate tours, and produce departmental materials. Before joining ESDA, she was an Adrienne Arsht intern in Development from fall 2022 to spring 2023 and worked as a client relations associate for Capital Creek Partners in Austin, Texas. Sarah received her MA from the Institute of Fine Arts in the History of Art and Archaeology and BA in Art History from the University of Texas in Austin with minors in Museum Studies and Business Administration.

Kristen Herdman joined the department in October 2023 to assist with the reassessment and renovation of the Central European Galleries (gallery 533). She holds a BA in Art History, an MA in Comparative Literature, an MA and an MPhil in Medieval Studies, and is a PhD Candidate at Yale University. Kristen comes to the department after working as a graduate research assistant at the Yale Center for British Art and as a curatorial fellow for the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, in New Haven, Connecticut. Her doctoral research focuses on the artistic and intellectual contributions of nuns in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century northern Germany, especially as expressed through manuscripts and large-scale embroideries.

Kristen Hudson joined the staff of the department in the fall of 2014. She previously worked in the Collections and Exhibitions and Education Departments at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her BA in art history from Vanderbilt University and MA in museum studies from New York University.

Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide is responsible for French and Dutch decorative arts. She was the co-curator of an exhibition at Bard Graduate Center on the origins of French decorative arts at The Met. From 2017-2018, she co-organized the exhibition Visitors to Versailles, (1682–1789), held at the Château de Versailles and The Met. Currently, she is preparing a thematic exhibition about scent. She has lectured and written extensively on various aspects of European Decorative Arts, including new acquisitions such as a pair of candelabra for the surtout de table of the Duc d’Orléans. Her most recent book, How to Read European Decorative Arts, was published in 2023 and is accompanied by an installation in Gallery 521.

She is a graduate of the Free University in Amsterdam and Leiden University.

Wolfram Koeppe joined The Met in 1992 after working at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He lectures and teaches, is involved in The Met's media programs, and is known for his development efforts. Among his exhibitions are the award-winning Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture by the Roentgens (2012). Its catalog became a rare book and a video clip of the Berlin cabinet went viral on YouTube with more than 15 million hits. He organized Art of the Royal Court: Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe (2008; voted "Exhibition of the Year" by Apollo Magazine) and Making Marvels. Science and Splendor at the Courts of Europe (2019-20). Many of his acquisitions are included in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (2012).

Sarah E. Lawrence joined the department in 2019. Before coming to ESDA, she was the Dean of the School of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons School of Design, and previously the Director of the MA program in the History of Decorative Arts and Design at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum. While at The Jewish Museum, she curated Crafting a Jewish Style: The Art of Bezalel, 1906–1996, and at the Cooper Hewitt, she curated Piranesi as Designer, a collaboration with the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.  In her scholarship, Dr. Lawrence's focus has been Renaissance material culture, and she has a particular interest in the Period Room as a site for meaningful intervention. She received her MA and PhD from Columbia University.

Iris Moon joined the department in 2017 and is responsible for European ceramics and glass. Her research on European decorative arts and architecture has been supported by the Decorative Arts Trust, the Paul Mellon Centre, and the Clark Art Institute. Alongside curatorial work at The Met, where she is currently organizing an exhibition on Chinoiserie, women, and the porcelain imaginary, she teaches at The Cooper Union. She is the author of Melancholy Wedgwood (2024), Luxury after the Terror (2022) and co-editor with Richard Taws of Time, Media and Visuality in Post-Revolutionary France (2021). She earned her PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Elyse Nelson oversees the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European sculpture collection. In addition to curating permanent gallery displays, she co-curated Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast (2022-23) and co-edited its accompanying catalogue. She studied at Yale (B.A.), the Courtauld Institute of Art (M.A.), and The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, where she is completing her doctoral thesis on Canova’s British patronage. She was a Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellow and Research Associate in the department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts before joining the Met’s curatorial staff in 2019.

Juan Stacey joined the Museum in 2006 and has served in his current role since 2012. He oversees the safe movement of the department's collection within the building and helps to maintain the integrity of both the objects and the galleries. He holds a BFA with a concentration in drawing and painting from the University of Georgia and a certificate in collections management from the New York University School of Continuing Professional Studies.

Denny Stone works with the department's curators and conservators to oversee the physical and documentary care of the collection. She joined the department in 2006 after holding positions in collections management, registration, and conservation in numerous New York City institutions. Prior to shifting her focus to the management of collections, she was curator of costumes and textiles for the San Diego History Center. She has been adjunct faculty in many graduate programs teaching museum studies and the history of fashion and jewelry.

Sam Winks is an art handler in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts.