In 1989, a memorable performance took place at Stanford Memorial Church. When she stood to take a bow, the Loma Prieta earthquake commenced, and her chair was struck by a piece of falling masonry. A performance highlight was her participation in the International Music Festival in Izmir, Turkey, in 2000, where she performed both in the Great Theatre of Ephesus as a guest artist, and her own story, “Mother Mary’s Secret Chest,” was presented on July 4 at Meryem Ana Evi, The House of Mary, in Ephesus, before an international audience of visitors and pilgrims. For this story and her recitation of verse from the poetry of Karol Jozef Wojtyla, she received a personal letter from the Vatican and a blessing from Pope John Paul. Dianne also performed during the Greek Olympic games in 2004 at the ancient stadium in Nemea, Greece, at the Argos Theatre Festival in 2005, and at the closing ceremony of the Revival of the Nemean Games in 2022.

 

Dianne is a published poet and author of ten books. She was a consultant for Scholastic Books on their Greek Myth Project for middle school children and gave programs of Greek myth, Sumerian verse and Irish poetry to elementary school children. She co-founded The Live Poets with poet, Ryland Kelley, and hosted a poetry hour on local TV for twelve years. In 1994, she and Dolly Steyer initiated The Hero Project at the Redwood City Arts Center. In 1996, Steerforth Press published a memoir entitled Giants & Heroes: A Daughter’s Memories of Y.A. Tittle. With the proceeds from this nationally acclaimed memoir, she initiated The Arete Fund, an educational non-profit in 1996. The Arete Fund supports education locally and acts globally to encourage greater understanding by means of humanitarian, educational and artistic projects. Arete provides college tuition assistance for deserving high school seniors who exemplify Arete – an ancient Greek word for excellence and virtue – and in turn, seeks to rekindle its ancient meaning for the modern day as a means of fostering mutual respect and good will. 

 

ARETE: To date, Arete has engaged in humanitarian projects in Darfur, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Morocco, Bethlehem, Mongolia, Tibet, Guatemala, and cultural outreach and educational projects in Greece. Since 1997, the fund has provided an annual scholarship for deserving individuals who aspire to attend college or trade school at Menlo-Atherton High School, in Atherton, California. Arete annually supports 14-20 students who attend La Escuela de los Sordos (The School for the Deaf) in Quetalzenango, Guatemala. Arete also provided scholarships at Hopi High School in Polacca, Arizona, for eleven years. In 2016, Arete partnered with World Relief to provide transitional housing for refugees from war torn countries, namely Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. Ta Mike’s Friendship House was the work of many hands and generous hearts before it became a home to families fleeing the ravages of war and coming to America for the first time.  In 2023, The Arete Fund initiated The Minnette and Y.A. Tittle Arete Scholarship Award at Marshall High School in Marshall, Texas, in memory of Dianne’s parents, and proudly named Jaylon McFarland as the first recipient.

As the Executive Director of The Arete Fund, a portion of all proceeds from her creative work benefits the Arete mission. Her performance piece - The Journey of Mothers - recalls “The Trail of Tears” as a metaphor for the journeys to democracy taking place in our own time. VOICE: A Call for Greater Religious Tolerance is a presentation of ancient verse and, in response, her own poetry. This creative work has been put to work on behalf of the mission.

~In 2020, The Arete Fund and the Mycenaean Foundation hosted the first annual Greek-American-Afghani Dialogue with the participation of the Honorable Omar Sultan, then the ambassador to Greece from Afghanistan.

~In June of 2022, The Arete Fund was honored in Greece and Dianne and Steve were awarded citizenship in Ancient Olympia as a result of a successful tree planting project in Western Greece that helped restore the livelihoods of farmers who lost everything in the fires of 2021. 135,000 olive trees (Olympia-trees.com. Presentations were given at The Olympia Forum and in Ancient Olympia that highlighted the challenges of climate change. TV2 in Denmark featured the Olympia Tree Project in a segment that highlighted the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy and celebrated Denmark’s 50 years in the European Union.

~Also in May and June of 2023, The Arete Fund launched its Hero Project in partnership with The Fougaro Art Center in Nafplio, Greece. Ours is a Greek-American collaboration that celebrates the heroes of the future in the  home  of the heroes from the past. This project for middle-school Greek children and those with special needs seeks to reacquaint Greek youth with some of the historical and cultural sites that pertain to the Heracles legend and encourage their own quest to define the hero for themselves.  The curriculum includes poetry and music and an exploration of the hero theme through a variety of artistic media.

 

Sculpture: The Figures or “Earth Icons”  are Dianne’s “poems as earth.” Assembled from natural elements, they  represent de Laet’s ongoing search for the language that speaks true and evokes the journey through myth and praise song that has been her creative and professional life. The figures summarize and hold in a feather or stone all that has ever been written or  done, all that has been performed or spoken aloud by one who aspires to find at least one more right word and possibly the one after that. The natural object is the key that unlocks the mysteries of language and truth, and reminds us to reverence our natural world and hold as precious our own very small piece of the human experience. Before the figures or poems as earth came to be used as elements in performance, they were destroyed or mistaken for garbage. Then, the artist, Clyde Connell, saw them and called the “precious” before inviting de Laet to come study with her on Lake Bistinou in Dixie, Louisiana. While this was not possible, the instruction given gave heart to the figures and now and then there were exhibits. To mention a few: The Gallery Tonantzin in San Juan Bautista, Speck Design in Palo Alto, California, Gallery 2611 in Redwood City, California, Gallery 2121 in San Francisco, California. Unfortunately, the Figures themselves proved as fragile and they broke in the coming and going. However, in the latest incarnation of this sculptural form, the Figures now appear as photographic images that can be transported easily and viewed against the inky black of the photograph much like a jewel against velvet. They are not invincible but thanks to photographer, Steven de Laet, they are ready. At long last, a new beginning. Dianne joins artists, Amy Da Peng King and Marianne Lettieri in exhibits at the Mohr Gallery in Mountain View, California, and in 2024, The Michelson Museum in Marshall, Texas.

 

At present, Dianne and her husband, Steve, have two children and five grandchildren. They currently divide their time between Menlo Park, California, and Greece, where they restored a 100-year-old peasant farmhouse. This old house is situated on a mountain between Mycenae and Argos, in close proximity to some of Greece’s most notable antiquities. Since 2008, Arete has facilitated cultural exchange at Ela Gaia and educational projects in the region. In 2024, Dianne has been invited to present in Delphi, Greece, at the Delphi Economic Forum and at the opening ceremony of the Nemean Games which will be held in the Temple of Zeus.  The work of Arete continues.