The Lexus Leader of the Arts

April, 2005

Annette Cone-Skelton

Annette Cone-Skelton co-founded the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA) after 30 years of work as an artist, gallery director, and art advisory firm owner. MOCA GA is an award-winning institution solely dedicated to promoting Georgia art and artists.  Its permanent collection holds 325 works by more than 145 artists.  Three years after its founding in midtown, MOCA GA recently confirmed its position as one of the city¹s leading cultural institutions when it opened a second location at SunTrust Plaza in downtown Atlanta.

Cone-Skelton1s experience as an artist led her to the idea for a contemporary arts museum for the state of Georgia.  Herself an accomplished artist, Cone-Skelton has works in the permanent collections of more than 10 national museums.  The High Museum recently purchased five Cone Skelton works and she is represented by The Kiang Gallery.  She has been celebrated in more than 15 one-person exhibitions and included in nearly 100 group shows across the country. In 1998, she received Creative Loafing1s Critics1 Choice Award for Best Visual Artist following receipt of the Georgia Women in the Visual Arts Achievement Award from the Georgia Commission on Women, State of Georgia, in 1997.  Her greatest accomplishment, however, is having passionately created a venue that serves other contemporary artists, as well as communicates the value of contemporary art to the general public for generations to come.

Cone-Skelton further serves Georgia1s arts community through current positions on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts and Culture Coalition, and Leadership Cabinet of the Arts Leadership League of Georgia.  She formerly was a member on the Board of Directors at the 20th Century Art Society at the High Museum of Art, Nexus Contemporary Art Center, The Atlanta College of Art, Art Papers, and Hambidge Center for the Arts.

A native of LaGrange, Georgia, Cone-Skelton is a graduate of LaGrange College and the Atlanta College of Art.  Previous to leading MOCA GA, she served as fine arts consultant to numerous corporations, institutions and private collectors through Annette Cone-Skelton, Inc. 

Cone-Skelton also was Director of the Heath Gallery, Managing Editor of Contemporary Art / Southeast, and a fine arts instructor at Atlanta College of Art and Oglethorpe University.  Visit MOCA GA online at www.mocaga.org.