It's not true that all multidisciplinary arts spaces are dilettantish — but experience has proven the stereotype generally irrefutable. Luckily, the exception is Intersection for the Arts. The city's oldest alternative arts space (42 years, to be exact), Intersection is unsurprisingly the stalwart among its struggling nonprofit brethren. Its sustained reputation for cutting-edge programs with a populist tinge has to do with the fact that there's no real repertory — everything always seems so damn fresh. There's the barebones genius of Campo Santo, Intersection's resident theater company. They craft collaborative pieces with the nation's most acclaimed authors, and with their open-process method (which fosters community conversation and lets audience members have a say in how the play goes down), craft them into transcendent works of art. The airy upstairs gallery space is always full of provocative, uncontrived work that doesn't pussyfoot around issues like terrorism, war, and sexuality — while the organization's interactive performance artery, the Hybrid Project, challenges young artists to go beyond their comfort zones and figure out ways to transform their pieces from staged spectacles to bona-fide communication tools. Aside from all that, there are reading series and workshops galore on just about anything you can imagine. Interested in Hamlet, politics, beatboxing, or a literary reading with writers under the age of 12? Just take a peep at Intersection's brochure and you'll probably find it.