Porches, an oral history project in Cleveland supported by the Ohio Arts Council, explains the importance of front porches in the lives of many of that city's older citizens.

Beginning in 1998, interviewers recorded the words of older people who observed life in their neighborhoods from their front porches. Now those words have been turned into a script that will be produced as a play this spring, then published as an anthology.

Porches was created by the Coordinated Arts Program at the Murtis H. Taylor Multi-Service Center, in partnership with the Creative Writing Workshop and Music and Performing Arts at Trinity Cathedral. It received support from The Cleveland Foundation and the United Black Fund, in addition to the Ohio Arts Council. The personal history project is intended to preserve cultural legacies and promote community values and neighborliness.

For more information about Porches or the Coordinated Arts Program call Tony Sias at 216/283-4400 extension 361.

PRESIDENT PROPOSES INCREASE IN FUNDING FOR ARTS ENDOWMENT

President Clinton proposed an increase in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts to $150 million in the FY 2001 budget he sent to Congress February 7. As he did a year ago, Clinton is asking Congress to provide additional arts funding to support the Challenge America initiative. The new program is designed to award more than 1,100 grants for arts education, improved access to the arts, programs serving youth at risk, cultural heritage and preservation, and community arts partnerships. Although congressional debate over NEA funding was relatively mild last year, the agency's budget remained static and a Senate proposal to add $5 million was defeated in the final stages of budget negotiations, leaving the arts endowment with $98 million in 2000. Besides the additional $52 million for Challenge America, Clinton's budget proposes $10 million in the Department of Education's budget for joint programming with the NEA. Congressional hearings on the appropriations requested by the Clinton administration begin March 21, when NEA Chair Bill Ivey will testify before the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee.