Patricia Michaels

Project Runway Michaels became the first Native American designer to participate in Project Runway, an Emmy Award-winning reality television in which diverse fashion designers compete against each other.

Visual art In 2019, Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), New Mexico's first Native congresswoman, now Secretary of the Interior, commissioned Michaels to design a chair as part of the "A Seat at the Table" art installation at the Edward Kennedy Institute in Massachusetts.

In 2020, Michaels took part in a project organized by Naomi Campbell, in which artists created face masks to raise money for charities. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation chose Michaels to deliver the keynote address of their Millennium Scholars Program in 2016.

In 2023, Michaels received New Mexico's Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture named Michaels a Living Treasure in 2024. both of whom are also artists. Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK; National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY, with catalog 2024: Patricia Michaels: Fashion and Fantasy, Wright Contemporary, Taos, NM 2024: Patricia Michaels: Bringing Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives, Fralin Museum of Art, University of Virginia 2024–25: Painted by Hand: The Textiles of Patricia Michaels, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, NM