The Paul Engle Association for Community Arts (PEACA) honors the spirit of one of Iowa's most noted writers and artists. Born Oct. 12, 1908, Paul Engle grew up on 16th Street SE, in the Wellington Heights section of Cedar Rapids. As director of the Iowa Writers Workshop, Engle helped make the word Iowa synonymous with imagination and creative excellence. As a founder of the University of Iowa's International Writing Program, he embodied art's ability to provide a meeting ground for people from different nations, races and cultural backgrounds. An accomplished poet and teacher, nominated for the Nobel Prize, he remains a source of community pride and inspiration. As a teenager, Engle had his first real job in this building, selling ice cream in the pharmacy along side Hladky's Grocery. In his memoirs, he described the experience as his "window into the whole area." PEACA holds monthly board meetings in the Paul Engle Center Community Room, located at 1600 4th Ave SE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
