The director of Villa Romana in Florence, Angelika Stepken, took over as director in November 2006. Following extensive refurbishment measures, she reopened the Villa in May 2007. Born 1955 in Moers in the Lower Rhine valley, Germany. She studied art history, philosophy and political science at the Freie Universität Berlin and worked initially as a feature pages editor and art critic. She realized numerous international exhibitions in Berlin and outside Germany between 1987 and 1998. She was appointed as Director of the Badischer Kunstverein in Karlsruhe in 1998. She has held a teaching position at the Art History Institute of Karlsruhe University and been vice-chair of AdKV (Organisation of German Art Associations). She has been the director of Villa Romana in Florence since November 2006.