[1][2][3] The organization began as a merger of several faith-based experiments that were using art to reach disenfranchised neighborhood youth while also providing artists who were conscientious objectors with an alternative to serving in the Vietnam War.

Robin Williams, Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello), Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Coyote, Bill Irwin and Country Joe McDonald performed there.

Intersection has worked with a range of artists including Whoopi Goldberg, Michael Ondaatje, David Henry Hwang, Carolyn Forché, and Ishmael Reed.

Recently, it has developed and presented work with Jessica Hagedorn, Alice Walker, bell hooks, John Trudell, Denis Johnson, Lebbeus Woods, Mike Davis, Dave Eggers, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Stefon Harris, Naomi Iizuka, Claudia Bernardi, Joe Goode, and Gary Snyder, as well as thousands of emerging artists.

Intersection for the Arts's resident artists include the theater company Campo Santo (Margo Hall, Sean San Jose, Luis Saguar, Michael Torres - Founders.

Several organizations that have been in the incubation program have gone on to have lasting impact in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Youth Speaks, Flyaway Productions, The Traveling Jewish Theater, and Galería de la Raza.