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 Meilleure ville pour le street art. (For the troisième 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 Prix 10Best Readers’ Choice Award pour le Ville la plus praticable à pied des États-Unis, 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 par Voyages et loisirs, Le Wall Street Journal, Le New York Times, BBC Travel, CNN et plus encore.

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

La scène artistique urbaine de Philly

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 par 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, Arts muraux de Philadelphie — responsible for over 4,000 (!) of the city’s murals and counting.

Vous souhaitez en savoir plus ? Mural Arts propose visites guidées, tandis que l'APA a compilé une sélection solide de visites autoguidées. Streets Dept, une plateforme spécialement dédiée à la collection d'art public de Philadelphie, organise des visites guidées tous les mois, également.

2026 in Philly

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

Mural Arts rings in 250e anniversaire de l'Amérique 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 Ministère de la Crainte révérencielle, an immersive art experience spearheaded by Mural Arts alum Meg Saligman, or the inaugural citywide ArtPhilly : Et maintenant : 2026 festival.

Une nation d'artistes à la Philadelphia Museum of Art et Académie des beaux-arts de Pennsylvanie et Rising Up : Rocky et la création de 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 courtoisie Philadelphia Museum of Art

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

2026 in Philadelphia