cue Bio

Ioana Barac is a designer and fabricator with a strong command of conceptual creation and spatial development, from 2D pattern and shallow relief to elaborate, large scale 3-dimensional sculptural works. Ioana has a Master of Architecture from Yale University where she received the Moulton Andrus Award for Excellence in Art and Architecture.

Marissa Dionne Mead is a licensed architect and a sculptor experienced in multiple mediums, including wood, aluminum, bronze-casting, and fiberglass. She earned a Bachelor of Architecture with honors from the University of Notre Dame, with a concentration in Furniture Design.

Ioana and Marissa first collaborated under the mentorship of famed local ornamenter Kent Bloomer and master craftsman William Jelley with whom they worked as Bloomer Studio’s principal design associates for 11 and 3 years, respectively. The most prominent projects they collaborated on at Bloomerstudio were the sculptural ornamentation for Slover Memorial Library in Norfolk, VA and for Flats 8300 Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, MD.

Makers at heart, both women find a strong sense of purpose in the creative space which joins high-design with the physical processes of model-making, prototyping, and fabricating. It is a shared purpose in the creation of architecturally integrated works of art, and a deep belief in the power of place, that led to the founding of Atelier Cue.

The Atelier’s most recent large-scale commissioned works are the art and place-making elements for the lobby of Canopy by Hilton in North Bethesda, MD, and the Here Now/The Conversation screens in Sommerville, MA, with Street-Works Studio. Recent sculptures include the Victims of Gun Violence Memorial in New Haven, CT, with Svigals+Partners, and “Rising Unity” - Memorial for Victims of Opioid Overdose.