Beyond Baroque

Fund: $25,000

Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center is dedicated to the artistic possibilities of language through cultivating new writing, presenting contemporary literature and art, and building a diverse literary community. Founded in 1968 and housed in the original Venice City Hall building in Venice, California, it is a nonprofit public space that seeks to expand the public’s knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. The Center values imaginative, artistic and critical engagement with language in all its dimensions, whether aural, graphic, symbolic, narrative or other. Since poetry tends to offer the most concentrated artistic engagement with language, the majority of its programs support poets. However, the Center also devotes considerable resources to working with visual, sound and performance artists, often with the aim of producing programs that provide multiple perspectives on the possibilities of language. Beyond Baroque is especially concerned with nurturing poets, writers and artists at all levels of development in creating new literature and art, and to encourage experimentation in their work.