“Intersection” began in 1965 as a merger of several faith-based experiments using art to reach underserved youth. The organization was originally called “Intersection Center for Religion and the Arts” and was located at 150 Ellis Street in the basement of a hotel. Three church groups, sponsored by the Glide Foundation, organized artists who were conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War to teach art to youth in the Tenderloin. “Intersection” was inspired by three predecessors: “Bread and Wine Mission”, “The Fourteenth Street Art Center”, and “The Precarious Vision Coffee House”. The organization quickly became an epicenter of new music, theater, comedy, and other arts in the Bay Area in the 1960s.
Intersection was founded in the Tenderloin by an interfaith coalition
