Flood art event in Long Beach March 31

Over the course of the last eight years, during which FLOOD has worked
with the Long Beach Arts District in mounting the annual SoundWalk
event, it has become apparent that there is not only an openness to
creative experimentation, but there is also strong desire for
self-expression among the business owners and residential
organizations who have partnered with FLOOD by graciously providing
spaces and venues to SoundWalk artists.

With an approach to curation that has as much to do with collaborative
performance as it does exhibition, we as FLOOD seek to mobilize
diverse groups of individuals to create artwork that is innovative and
culturally relevant.

As a result, in 2012, FLOOD is launching a trio of events entitled
MERGE
. This will be an exercise in communal curation merging creative
individuals with the Arts District's business and residential
communities. In each of these events, business owners and residential
organizations will present artists whom they find relevant. These
artists will be juxtaposed and, at times, engaging with artists
selected by FLOOD. In what will be an evening highlighting a diversity
of interplayful sensibilities, visitors will find themselves within an
expressive city space, shifting with fluid aesthetic interactions and
energized by creative tension.

WHAT: Merge 2011 Part 1, A one-night event of video projection, sound
installations, performance art, theater, music and more by local
artists. Parts 2 & 3 are scheduled take place on June 2nd and December
1st.

WHERE: Throughout the area encompassed by 4th St, Linden Ave, First
Street and Elm Ave.

WHEN: Saturday, March 31, 2012 from 5 - 10 pm

ADMISSION: Free

PARKING: Metered parking is available on the street; additional
parking is also available in the parking lot at the NE corner of
Broadway and Elm Ave

**About FLOOD**

The artist group, FLOOD has been working together on installation
projects since 2002. FLOOD is interested in testing the limits of
artistic expression through collaboration and experimentation within a
variety of artistic genres. Current members of FLOOD are Kamran
Assadi, Frauke von der Horst, Shelley RuggThorp, Nick Dynice and Marco
Schindelmann.