The Luggage Store, also known as The 509 Cultural Center is a non profit artist run multidisciplinary arts organization, founded in 1987. We obtained our 501C3 non profit status in November, 1989.
MissionOur mission is to build community by organizing multidisciplinary arts programming accessible to and reflective of the Bay Area’s residents. Our programs are designed to broaden social and aesthetic networks, and to encourage the flow of images and ideas between the diverse cultural communities that cross paths in our exceptionally dynamic downtown San Francisco neighborhood. To implement our mission, we organize exhibitions, performing arts events, arts education and public art programs designed to amplify the voices of the region’s diverse artists and residents, to promote inclusion and respect, to reduce inter-group tensions and to work towards dispelling the stereotypes and fears that continue to separate us.
HistoryWe began an an all volunteer collective (17 members), predominantly of residents from the the former Aarti Cooperative Hotel at Ellis and Leavenworth, in 1987. We remained as a collective until about 1989, right about the time of the Lomo Prieta Earthquake.
