Rochester's DEEP Arts Approved For $15K 2024 NEA Grant For MOSES MAN FINDING HOME

DEEP Arts has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a 2024 Grants for Arts Projects award of $15,000. This grant will support Moses Man Finding Home, a project addressing forcibly displaced people.  

 

Moses Man began as a musical written by DEEP Arts Founding Executive Artistic Director Deborah Haber and award-winning Rochester composer/producer Casey Filiaci. Its inspiration was the long journey of Haber's late parents, Holocaust survivors Lily and Kalman Haber, from Vienna, Austria in 1938 to freedom in the U.S. nine years later. The musical was produced at both Geva Theatre Center and in New York City's prestigious NYMF musical theatre festival in 2015. Since then, it has evolved to address the more than 100 million refugees and forcefully displaced people in the world today – a number that rises daily. The project now includes multi-Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Dave Marshall from Blue Sky Project, who is chronicling its progress. The resulting documentary film will include footage from presentations, performances, testimony, artwork, and site visits in Vienna, Berlin, Krakow, and at Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. Haber's uncle, Alfred Juffy, was murdered at Auschwitz and his journey is depicted in Moses Man through the song “I Won't Disappear.”

 

“Just as my parents did, refugees are fleeing the homes they love in order to stay alive, not knowing what the next day will bring. Moses Man: Finding Home's mission to link past and present shines a light that ‘Never Again' is truly ‘Never Ending,'” says Haber.

 

A $10,000 2023 NEA grant went to DEEP Arts' LIKAH! A Puppy Musical, also written by Haber and Filiaci. Like Moses Man, LIKAH! (LEE-kah) is based on Haber's real-life experiences, this time with her own border collie of the same name. The charming family musical deals with the unexpected hurt of losing someone dear – a particularly difficult process for children – in a delightful way. LIKAH! had an industry reading at The Theatre Centre on Broadway in 2019, and its team includes several Disney professionals. The project has evolved to include a picture book vetted by child psychologists specializing in loss, music videos, and collaborations with animal rescue and therapy organizations.

 

“We are thrilled to have the value of both of our projects recognized on a national level,” Haber adds. “DEEP Arts is beyond grateful for the assistance this funding will bring in reaching more people with these important messages.”

 

“The NEA is delighted to announce this grant to DEEP Arts, which is helping contribute to the strength and well-being of the arts sector and local community,” said National Endowment for the Arts Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “We are pleased to be able to support this community and help create an environment where all people have the opportunity to live artful lives.”  

 

In total, the NEA will award 958 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $27.1 million that were announced earlier this morning as part of its first round of fiscal year 2024 grants.For more information on other projects included in the NEA's grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

 

DEEP Arts (Develop, Explore, Enrich, Perform) – originally founded as Rochester Children's Theatre in 1990 – is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit arts organization whose mission is to develop and present new works that include education and outreach. It has a long history of creating multi-arts presentations, curriculum-based study guides and artist residencies, and has received considerable support from major funders including the National Endowment for the Arts.

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