Our History
“Because of the amount of time Intersection has been around its history is a complicated story to tell. It’s always going to be seen through the lens of how you experienced it and when, so there is a certain amount of refraction that takes place during each of our reflections. A poet reading in front of a packed audience in an old church in North Beach in the sixties would see it from a much different perspective than a visual artist whose work was installed in one of the spaces in the Mission in the eighties. Given that, and that time bends and sometimes warps memory, a historical record is never going to be precise and something is bound to be left out. What is presented here is drawn from the archives, which although they contain such minutiae as old phone messages and reservation sheets, is by necessity a broad stroke approach to telling the history of this enduring and complicated organization.”
— Randy Rollison, Executive Director of Intersection for the Arts, 2014-2021
1965 - 2022
“Intersection” was founded in the Tenderloin by an interfaith coalition of three churches in a former bar at 150 Ellis Street.
Robert Johnson, Intersection Director (1966-69):
Our Poetry Series
Ntozake Shange, playwright and poet:
Ishmael Reed, poet:
Assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk
Deborah Cullinan, Executive Director, 1996-2013:
Campo Santo forms!
Marcus Shelby joins Intersection
Jazz at Intersection
Erika Shuch, choreographer and artistic director of the ESP Project, joined Intersection.
We move into the San Francisco Chronicle Building
We shift our business model to focus on fiscal sponsorship
We moved to 1446 Market Street…
Intersection adopts a shared leadership model.

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Intersection for the Arts respectfully acknowledges that we are based in Yelamu: the traditional, unceded lands of the Ohlone people. We pay our respects to elders both past and present.