Rebecca Olsen

Rebecca Olsen, President and CEO of the Santa Reparata International School of Art (SRISA), was born in Italy and raised between Texas and Florence. She moved permanently to Florence in 1999, where she began her professional career as the studio manager of the Santa Reparata Graphic Arts Center. Soon afterward, she re-founded the school with Dennis Olsen (her father) and Meredith Dean, renaming it SRISA, assuring its place as one of the most prestigious art schools in Florence. Olsen served as the Director for 23 years before moving into her current role as President in January 2022. Alongside her talented staff, she has been pivotal in leading SRISA to prominence in art education in Florence.

In addition to her leadership at SRISA, Rebecca Olsen is a visual artist known for her unique wearable art. She owns Olsen Design and regularly exhibits her work internationally, with representation from the Whitegrid Gallery in Berlin. Her handmade wearable art is also featured in the Whitney Museum shop.

Message from the President

Building SRISA has been the great privilege of my life. Over the past 25 years, I have witnessed the generational shifts that have been influenced by political, social, technological as well as climate events. The world we live in is changing rapidly and students’ needs are evolving in important ways. It is our job as educators to adapt to their needs and rise up to meet them where they are.

While we offer a wide range of courses in many disciplines from Marketing to Art History, SRISA’s heart and core is a creative one. Learning about life, art, and history in the birthplace of the Renaissance, a city known all over the world for its incredible achievements in science, art, and humanities, feels prescient and relevant at this moment in history.

We humans are at a critical point of our evolution and I firmly believe that creatives and creative thinkers will be needed now if not more than ever. We began over 50 years ago as a school run by passionate artists. We are now one of the largest and most important American art schools in Florence and are still run by a group of passionate creatives committed to transforming lives through the experience of Florence, education, art, and design.” 

Rebecca Olsen