Mat Bevel Company sponsor Jack Zittere, field ecologist in the Rocky Mountains.

Jack Zittere has been closely connected to nature since he was a small child. He says, “I’ve always liked being outdoors and exploring the natural world. I like understanding nature, and relaxing in it.”

The son of an engineer and an art historian, he’s always looked at nature with a scientific and artistic eye. He studies how science, art and nature come together. Collecting data on spotted owls and yellow billed cuckoos takes him into the pristine mountain ranges of Southeastern, Arizona. He says, “I feel at peace when I’m in nature. I feel fulfilled.”

Jack cites Ned Schaper’s Surrealistic Pop Science Theater as one of the best examples of how art, science and nature come together. The sculptures, which serve as the set for the theater, hold particular interest for Jack, who always wanted to be a sculptor. He explains, “I would find great junk elements and give them to Ned, then he would turn the parts into a clever and brilliant combination of mechanics and art for the theater. His work deeply inspires me.”

Jack Zittere with Mat Bevel Company President Ned Schaper’s grandson, a burgeoning artist in his own right!

He continues, “Ned’s theater environments are incredible. His theater is a fantastic confluence of music, poetry, sculpture, performance and lighting. It’s a totally new amalgam, a new direction in theater that has to get out to the world. People need to see it to understand it. That’s where the magic is.”

Jack sees  the imagination as the spark of creativity. He became a Mat Bevel Company sponsor during the “Escape Velocity” campaign because he believes, through Bevelvision, Ned is producing a whole new way for people to experience cinematic theater in the future.

He thinks Ned’s involvement with The Universe Within world-building curriculum will help him re-imagine how Bevelvision will unfold. “Having kids involved is great. Students at Patagonia Elementary School are participating in the filming of The Universe Within and Ned and his grandson are working on a kid’s TV show. I’m excited to see what will emerge over the next year or two with Ned and kids exploring art, science and nature in a surreal landscape.”

Jack loves to find treasures among the stuff others throw away. Lucky day—He found some great books in the dumpster!

Jack’s personal mission is to leave the world a better place than he found it. His vocation is a vehicle for him to do that. When he finds a rare plant or animal in an area slated for development, his discoveries have sometimes saved critical habitat. His ecological research has led to a greater understanding of endangered species’ population dynamics and behaviors.

Supporting Mat Bevel Company is another way Jack feels he’s making the world a better place.

He says, “Mat Bevel Company takes on really big and innovative challenges. They are not doing the ordinary. By supporting Mat Bevel Company, I feel I’m helping other people use the imagination to further the appreciation of art, science and nature.”

South32’s Communities Manager Melanie Lawson handing out school supplies for the “Jump Back to School” event in Nogales, Arizona.

South32 is a mining and metals company whose purpose is to make a difference by developing natural resources, improving people’s lives now and for generations to come. The company is trusted by its owners and partners to realize the potential of their resources.

Melanie Lawson is the Communities Manager for South32, responsible for developing relationships with the local community and developing community investment as well as other programs. Outside of her work with South32, Melanie enjoys spending time with her family outdoors. Her family loves swimming and golfing together as well as exploring new places all around Arizona.

Melanie says, “South32 supported Mat Bevel Company this year as a sponsor because it’s a unique organization that provides an educational benefit as well as an arts and culture benefit to local students. The Universe Within program is unlike any other and pushes students to explore science, engineering, and art all at once.”

South32’s Garner Lea – Senior Project Engineer, Angela Watt – Manager Underground Engineering and Pat Risner – Hermosa Mine President.

Similar to Mat Bevel Company, South32 is committed to cultivating ingenuity and inspiring people to tackle challenges with greater imagination. The Hermosa project in Patagonia, Arizona, is bringing together big imaginations, deep thinkers, problem solvers, and visionaries from across the industry, because the project has so much potential. The Hermosa project is providing South32 with the rare opportunity to consider using technology and other innovations in a way that typically isn’t done in the mining industry. Melanie says, “We’re exploring new technology and innovation as they relate to mining. It’s an open-minded approach to modernizing the way we bring metals to market.”

Melanie believes that responsible environmental management is an obvious way to make the world a better place. She says, “I know that many people don’t think responsible management of environmental impacts and mining can coexist, but I’ve experienced with South32 and other mining companies that it can.”

South32’s Melanie Lawson with her daughter at the Patagonia Volunteer Fire & Rescue Annual Steak Fry & Raffle in Patagonia.

Two of the key things that Melanie would like to pass on to future generations are access to education and economic opportunity. She says, “I want not only my own children but also the children in the communities where we work to have access to quality education, which can then open the door to economic and other opportunities.”

South32’s aim is to build a trusting and long-lasting relationship with the community and to leave a positive legacy. Partnering with Mat Bevel Company is one way that South32 supports local education and art in the local schools, which in turn makes a positive impact in the community.

South32 Hermosa Community Fund Grant Supports Production of The Universe Within Multimedia Digital Curriculum.

The Santa Cruz Foundation for the Performing Arts was founded in 2005 to promote the performing arts on behalf of the Santa Cruz County, Arizona community. Today, SCFPA brings world-class performers and local talent to the stage in Southern Arizona’s beautiful Santa Cruz Valley. Through a series of unique events, SCFPA offers fresh, exciting ways for both residents and visitors to experience chamber music in all its various forms. 

The Santa Cruz Foundation for the Performing Arts (SCFPA) is dedicated to presenting high quality live performances of traditional and classical music in Southern Arizona’s Santa Cruz Valley. For many years, SCFPA brought chamber music to Southern Arizona in area homes and historic sites. In 2017, the organization’s long range goal became a reality. The exquisite Benderly-Kendall Opera House was completed in Patagonia, Arizona. Today this state of the art recital hall is a permanent venue for future generations of concert goers.

The 2019-2020 concert series includes a variety of duo and trio ensembles that feature harp, flute, violin and piano. February concerts feature a Japanese duo on the koto and violoncello instruments, and the award-winning Newpoli Ensemble Mediterranean, comprised of musicians and dancers who meld traditional Italian folk music with Greek, Spanish and Turkish grooves. During the month of March, the Opera House hosts three University of Arizona Musicians on Tour concerts with outstanding students from the Fred Fox School of Music. The season concludes with Baroque Chamber Music and a Schumann Piano Quintet featuring former artist-in-residence Evan Kory and his colleagues, who will travel from all parts of the country and overseas to perform at the Opera House.

SCFPA Executive and Artist Director Christina Wilhelm says, “Each season we strive to maintain the highest quality musical standard bringing world-class talent to the Opera House in these intimate performances. People who attend our concerts tell us that they are enveloped by the sound and enthralled by the shared experience of wonder and amazement. Musicians and audiences thrive through a symbiotic energy exchange in which audiences respond to the performers, who, in turn, respond to the audience as they are all embraced by the sounds.

The Opera House follows the design tradition of the long and narrow 19th century salons where chamber music was first performed, like the Felix Mendelssohn Music Room in Leipzig, Germany. Acoustical science proves that those proportions—a room twice as long as it is wide—help bring unamplified direct and reflected sounds of a performance to every seat with equal volume, liveliness, and warmth.

It’s a shared mission that has inspired SCFPA to support Mat Bevel Company each year during its annual fundraiser as a sponsor. SCFPA and MBC’s work centers around providing deeply personal experiences for audiences through the performing arts. Christina explains, “We support MBC because we collaborate with like-minded organizations that value the role of creativity and the performing arts in enhancing our communities and people’s lives.”

SCFPA’s Opera House revives the traditional role that opera houses played in the formation of the West. Small town opera houses, like the one right here in Patagonia, were born of a desire to enhance the cultural status of the community. Isolated rural mining towns, especially, established opera houses as a way for residents to hear world-class musicians on tour as a much needed and immensely popular form of entertainment.

In addition to the Opera House, SCPFA has a professional, custom designed stage on wheels called the Concert Haul® that brings performers to the audience. The Concert Haul® also serves as the onsite venue for SCFPA’s series of free outdoor community concert series during the month of June.

SCFPA and MBC also share a commitment to bringing art and music into the lives of young people. A 2017 assessment by the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that national art scores in the Western part of the United States lagged well behind those of the Northeast and East Coast. Only a third of 8^th-graders in the western U.S. took an art class in 2016 year and only 17 percent played in the school band, the lowest figures of any region in the country, according this national arts assessment.

MBC’s The Universe Within uses the Surrealistic Pop Science Theater as the framework for students to learn about the science and art of sculpture, kinetic art, poetry and performance. SCFPA’s internship program introduces students to various aspects of producing live performing arts.

Mat Bevel Company thanks SCFPA for its support of the performing arts and arts education programming!