Sam Gomez (Virtual)

Sam Gomez is the Executive Director and Founder of The Sagrado, a nonprofit community arts organization and cultural development anchor based in South Phoenix, Arizona since 2016. Rooted in the mantra Pasado. Presente. Futuro., The Sagrado was built as more than a gallery — it is a platform for community sovereignty, Indigenous cultural identity, and the use of art, design, and place as tools of advocacy and self-determined development.

Under Sam's leadership, The Sagrado has grown into a multidisciplinary civic force. Programs like Mujeres del Desierto, Ancestral, Forever Rising, South Phoenix Love, and Design Empowerment PHX reflect a long-term commitment to cultural programming grounded in the knowledge systems of the Southwest's Indigenous communities. The Sagrado's public art work — including a contract with the City of Phoenix for the 3rd Street Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge — positions the organization as a recognized civic design partner. The 10th Annual Ancestral Art Exhibition, set for October 23, 2026 at the Rio Salado on South Central Avenue, marks a decade of gathering art and community at sites of deep spiritual and cultural significance.

Sam's current vision centers the El Paseo Sagrado — a proposed 12-mile Arts, Culture & Nature District along Central Avenue, Desde el Rio Hasta la Montaña — as a community-authored framework synthesizing active public investments in South Phoenix into a unified, living district. Through this work, Sam continues to position The Sagrado not as a recipient of development, but as its author — a cultural institution building the ancestral future of South Phoenix, one project, one gathering, one generation at a time.