The nonprofit group, launched with a $400,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, held its first public reception at the August 2009 Santa Fe Indian Market.

Co-founders of the group are Michael Chapman (Menominee) and Gail Bruce. Chapman, former chairman of the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin, is an authority on corporate and nonprofit fundraising. He has served on the Prsident's Commission on National and Community Service and as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs. Bruce, a serigraph artist, worked as a model for Diana Vreeland, Coco Chanel and photographer Irving Penn, and was a founding board member of the American Indian College Fund. "This enables us to dream big and deeply explore opportunities (for Natives)in art and fashion," notes Chapman. "The grant will help bring Native visions and voices to the forefront of these two arenas."

The group has already established a mentoring relationship between the Metropolitan Museum of Art in new York and a group of students from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. It will also play a role in bringing designers Virgil Ortiz (Cochita Pueblo), Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo) and other Native fashionistas to New York Fashion Week in January. Details: 212/206-6580 or www.unreservedalliance.org