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A flourishing center for arts and culture in Eastern Iowa, the city is home to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, the Paramount Theatre, Theatre Cedar Rapids, and the Iowa Cultural Corridor Alliance. Cedar Rapids is an economic hub of the state, located in the core of the Interstate 380 Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Technology Corridor of Linn, Benton, Jones, Johnson, and Washington counties. The estimated population of the three-county Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes the nearby cities of Marion and Hiawatha, was 255,452 in 2008. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 128,056 in 2008. The Cedar Rapids/Iowa City corridor has an estimated population of 423,353 as of 2006. Cedar Rapids has been residence to famous figures for the United States, including American Gothic painter Grant Wood, journalist and historian William L. Shirer, writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten, and aerodynamics pioneer Dr. Alexander Lippisch. In the 1990s and 2000s, Hollywood would feature several Cedar Rapidians including actors Bobby Driscoll, Ashton Kutcher, Elijah Wood and Ron Livingston. The city is also the setting for a musical, The Pajama Game. Cedar Rapids is nicknamed the "City of Five Seasons", for the "fifth season" which is a time to enjoy the other four. The symbol of the five seasons is the Tree of Five Seasons sculpture in downtown along the north river bank. The name "Five Seasons" and representations of the sculpture appear throughout the city in many forms. |
