Philly’s the Best City in the Nation for Street Art — Find Out Why

All eyes are on Philadelphia in 2026: Philly history, Philly events and, of course, Philly art.

Just as the City of Brotherly Love enters its biggest year yet, celebrating the nation’s milestone 250th birthday, USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards delivers Philly another major accolade: The 2026 award for Best City for Street Art. (For the third time, no less.)

Nominated once again by the travel experts at USA Today and 10Best.com, Philadelphia and its expansive public art collection went up against 19 other cities, including New York City, Miami and Chicago, for the coveted title.

After weeks of voting, travelers from across the nation made their voices known, electing the top 10 cities, with Philly taking the top prize (duh). The “Mural Capital of the World” previously claimed the No. 1 spot in both 2025 and 2023.

This year’s win joins Philadelphia’s other recent USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Award for the Most Walkable City in America, as part of a growing list of recent awards and accolades.

In the past year alone, the City of Brotherly Love has been named one of the world’s top travel destinations for 2026 by Travel + Leisure, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BBC Travel, CNN and more.

The city and its attractions have also earned major praise from National Geographic, Architectural Digest and the Michelin Guide, which made its Philadelphia debut in 2025, awarding three local restaurants one-star recognition.

Philly’s Street Art Scene

Home to one of the largest and most accessible public art collections in the world, Philly has art baked into its very DNA.

Streets and walls across the city burst with murals, sculptures, installations, mosaics and more, making the city a living, breathing, immersive (and admission-free) art gallery.

The collection packs just as much passion and attitude as Philadelphians themselves, thanks to both institutions and individual artists, like the late Isaiah Zagar, known for his signature tile work mosaics.

Common Threads by artist Meg Saligman   — Photo by Visit Philadelphia

Much of Philadelphia’s ever-growing street art collection can be credited to the Association for Public Art (APA) and to the nation’s largest public art program, Mural Arts Philadelphia — responsible for over 4,000 (!) of the city’s murals and counting.

Want to learn more? Mural Arts offers guided tours, while the APA has compiled a robust selection of self-guided tours. Streets Dept, a platform specifically dedicated to Philadelphia’s public art collection, runs tours monthly, as well.

2026 in Philly

Philadelphia artists and art lovers are painting the town red, white and blue — all year long.

Mural Arts rings in America’s 250th birthday with an exciting lineup of projects, including several murals, of course.

Elsewhere, local museums and artists join the fun with a blockbuster calendar of openings, exhibitions and a massive multidisciplinary fest. Don’t miss the debut of the Ministry of Awe, an immersive art experience spearheaded by Mural Arts alum Meg Saligman, or the inaugural citywide ArtPhilly: What Now: 2026 festival.

A Nation of Artists at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments, also at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, are among the special exhibitions coming to the city.

Gilbert Stuart George Washington (The Lansdowne Portrait), 1796 Oil on canvas, 96 x 60 inches (243.84 x 152.4 cm) The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Bequest of William Bingham   — Photo courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art

To peruse all of Philly’s Semiquincentennial happenings, click the button below.

2026 in Philadelphia