Linn County, Iowa, is on the rebound. Flood waters swept through and destroyed much in the way of property in June, 2008, and now a new installment in Cedar Rapids called "Mapping a Sense of Place" is helping to restore the cultural center of this hard-hit hamlet.  A news piece by S. Gravelle at Eastern Iowa Government dot-com highlights the project.

Yes, lest you think I've gone mad, I referenced "culture" in Iowa. I know of enough good songwriters, writers, and artists from this area to make clear that corn and soybeans aren't the only thing growing. Fertile artistic minds abound.

The Chicago artist (though, hello, why not an Iowan on the job here?) Sonata Kazimieraitiene compiled a tile mosaic. She used individually adorned tiles to map the county as a sort of ceramic relief map. Tiles were designed by people working in the Linn County Community Services building in southwest Cedar Rapids (there we go!) as the composite material. An inspired project to inspire recovery and hope.