Meta Knol studied art history at Utrecht University. After having received her MA, Knol has realized exhibitions, has written on the visual arts and has been involved in several cultural projects, such as the artist residency Het vijfde seizoen (The Fifth Season) on the grounds of a psychiatric hospital in Den Dolder, the mobile exhibition pavilion Pleinmuseum as well as the Madness & Art Festival in Haarlem (2010). Meta Knol holds a number of board positions in the cultural sector.

From 1997, Knol was tied to the Centraal Museum in Utrecht as a curator. As a researcher she has worked on the catalog of modern art collections Moderne Kunst (Modern Art, 2004) and the intermuseal catalog of collections US in NL – American Art in Dutch Museums, 1945-2001 (2005). In the summer of 2004 she has curated the exhibitions of drawings Microkosmos and Zwart op Wit (Black on White). In 2006 she was the curator of the exhibition This is America. Visions of the American Dream (2006). In 2008 she realized the presentation of collections Standpunten (Points of View). Her most recent exhibition for the Centraal Museum is Beyond the Dutch – Indonesia, the Netherlands and the Visual Arts sinds 1900.

In 2007, Knol drafted the manifesto Naar een mondig museum (Towards an Extroverted Museum) with Edwin Jacobs and Stijn Huijts, which caused a lot of stir in the Dutch museum world. Ever since, she has been an advocate for the innovation of the museum sector. Meta Knol was one of the initiators of Framer Framed. In August 2009, she was appointed the director of the Municipal Museum De Lakenhal (Leiden).