WORLD TRAVELER AND ARTS ADVOCATE: DIANA GEIGER

By JACI WEBB

Traveling the world and serving in communities across the globe enriched Diana Geiger’s life and made her appreciate being around family, like the Yellowstone Art Museum family.

Diana has served as the Executive Assistant since 2016, with a 16-month break during the pandemic. Even though she loves to travel with her husband, Dan, Diana also enjoys supporting the YAM management team and the board, and she’s proud of her work at the museum. Diana retired at the end of 2022 and trained her replacement Hillary Skinner.

Diana believes that the YAM is the heart of the cultural community in Billings and found her work at the museum to be most rewarding. “The YAM is one of the cornerstones of our cultural community,” Diana said.

Prior to being at the YAM, Diana served 10 years as Executive Assistant to Larry Olson, President of L.A. Olson and Associates, Inc., an architectural and engineering firm in Billings, and worked in Haifa, Israel, as an Executive Assistant to Fariborz Sahba, a world-renowned architect.

Diana is deeply spiritual and committed to community service. For decades, she and Dan have completed community service projects on behalf of the Baha’i Faith. From 2001 to 2003, she and Dan traveled to 15 countries in 15 months engaged in service and economic development projects.

Among her most memorable experiences was assisting at a refugee camp in New Zealand where she taught youths from warring Arab countries how to jitterbug. The young men also taught her their Arab dances. In Lucknow, India, Diana was swept into a wedding parade as she watched the bride in her gorgeous red spangled gown, walking with hundreds of guests in the street behind the groom on a white stallion. The bride kissed Diana’s cheek as she walked next to her, and Diana later found out that having a stranger join the wedding walk is considered a blessing to the couple.

Diana is also an Interior Designer. She was just starting a big project in Scottsdale, Arizona, last December when YAM Finance Director John Greenberger gave her a call. The YAM needed Diana and she returned in January to her previous post. “It was a good time for me to come back to the YAM. It’s so nice to be back among friends,” she said.

Her favorite artist is Russell Chatham, and, in her free moments, Diana loves to walk through the Seasons exhibition featuring the subtle, ethereal landscapes depicting every month of the year. Since Jessica Ruhle took over as Executive Director at the YAM in early 2022, Diana said she enjoyed listening to her describe art. “While I appreciate beautiful works of art, to hear Jessica describe a work of art is more beautiful to me than the piece itself,” Diana said.