Mile 182.6 - RBD Artica

John Ruskey

20 Apr 2026 � 1 min read

182.6 RBD Artica

Recently a few local artists have installed quite a spectacular mural across the facade of the Cotton Belt Building, and it has become the home base for an annual autumnal event called “Artica.” The industrial riverfront: a place where hawks soar through long forgotten structures, wild flowers emerge from time worn rubble, ancestral ghosts keep watch over the land and the people of St. Louis gather once a year to summon the spirits of creative community. Artica is a multi-disciplinary and participatory art festival and parade that is held each year on the banks of the north Mississippi river front in St. Louis. Artica founders Hap Phillips and Nita Turnage were living in a warehouse space in St. Louis, near the north Mississippi river front, on the edge of what is now known to many simply as “Artica”. The site was a dumping ground and consisted mostly of vast fields of rubble, vacant warehouses, neglected industrial properties, a few small active business, absentee landlords and the homes of the homeless. Throughout St. Louis’ rich history, this area had been, among many things, the site of several earthen Indian mounds, a common field area, a stop on the under ground railroad and a hub for transportation and industry. (From Artica website)

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