SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts announced the appointment of Deborah M. Cullinan as Executive Director. Cullinan will begin her new role on September 15, 2013.

Cullinan comes to YBCA after having served as the executive director at San Francisco’s Intersection for the Arts, the Bay Area’s pioneering arts and community development organization. During her tenure at Intersection, Cullinan took the organization from financial crisis and turned it into a thriving and vibrant institution with leading-edge programming.

“Deborah is the perfect choice to lead YBCA,” said YBCA Board Chair Diana Cohn. “Through her tireless work at Intersection she has demonstrated a commitment to working not only across artistic disciplines, but also collaborating across sectors. She is both an arts advocate and a community builder, and we are very excited about what she will bring to YBCA and its future success.”

“I am thrilled to be joining the extraordinary team at YBCA,” said Cullinan. “As our city continues to grow and change, YBCA sits at the heart. It is the pulse, the connector, the instigator of vibrant contemporary life fueled by the visionary artists and innovators of our times. I’m eager to tackle the challenge of how YBCA relates to the city’s growth, development and changing demographics. I believe that YBCA has a role to play not only around contemporary art, but also around place-making and leadership in the city.”

As a recognized leader in the San Francisco arts community, Cullinan has partnered with Brad Erickson, executive director of Theater Bay Area, to create Arts Forum San Francisco as a way to improve local arts advocacy, educating elected officials about the arts, and integrating the arts into solutions to address city issues. Cullinan has also connected with statewide advocacy efforts as a board member for both the California Arts Advocates and Californians for the Arts. She has consulted with other arts organizations across the country and is often invited to participate in national conferences as a speaker and panelist.

In 2012, Cullinan was named one of the Most Influential San Franciscans by San Francisco Magazine. She is highly regarded by the local San Francisco arts community and has established a presence in the field on the national level.

When Cullinan became executive director at Intersection in 1996, she assumed responsibility for a $170,000 operating budget and one staff member. She eliminated the organization’s debt within her first year and began leveraging Intersection’s limited existing resources to build programming in response to community need. She publicly launched Intersection’s three-year Theatre Residency Program in the fall of 1997 with two distinctly different local theater groups, Campo Santo and The Fifth Floor. The early success of the program positioned the organization for new and increased support from donors and institutional funders.

Now Intersection has a $2 million budget, 15 core staff, and programs serving 350 artists each year. Due to Cullinan’s innovation and leadership, the organization’s fiscal sponsorship program has supported 120 projects, Jazz at Intersection has featured more than 200 concerts, and the Community Partner Program includes ongoing relationships with over 30 schools and local nonprofits.

Under Cullinan’s direction, Intersection also is playing a leadership role in the 5M Project, a four-acre private, mixed-use development project, located at the crossroads of several diverse neighborhoods in downtown San Francisco. Intersection was one of 16 organizations chosen to participate in the project to demonstrate the shared value in coexisting and working together.

Last year, Cullinan was selected as one of 100 leaders in the cultural sector to participate in the National Arts Strategies’ Chief Executive Program. This two-year initiative has been designed to unleash the collective power of individuals to solve intractable problems. Participants were selected for their ability to re-imagine what cultural institutions will be and how they can contribute to civil society.

“We couldn’t have chosen a better executive director for YBCA,” said Bruce McDougal, YBCA chair of the search committee. “Deborah began her impressive career in development and has successfully built and grown fundraising programs. From her first day at Intersection, she was sensitive and responsive to the organization’s local context and the community it serves.”