Streets Dept Excursions are curated, guided walking tours exploring the art of Philadelphia. After 15 years running Streets Dept, we’ve learned a lot about the art and artists that are defining our public space. Each tour is hosted by Streets Dept’s Founder, Conrad Benner (hi!), and/or Lead Contributor, Eric Dale.

And for the rest of 2026, we’re expanding to two tours a month: 1) Our ongoing 4th Saturday morning Streets Dept Excursion*, which is completely new each month. As well as, 2) A new monthly Thursday evening tour featuring some of our most beloved walks (scroll to bottom of post to skip to these)!

We love offering these experiences for you, and want to remind you that every cent spent on one of these tours helps to support the work we do here at Streets Dept to document, archive, and celebrate Philly’s ever-changing art world. We thank you so much for your contribution, and we’re excited to see you!

Thank you,

Conrad Benner

*Please note that if you are a Streets Dept Patreon member at the Events tier or above, you get two tickets as part of your membership and you will receive information on each month’s Saturday Excursion via email!

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Best-Of Excursion: Solidly South Philly (Early Evening)

This beloved tour is now being offered more often, including this special early evening edition outside our typical monthly schedule. From the Percy Street Project to Isaiah Zagar mosaic murals, to 9th Street Market art infrastructure, a mural made completely from bottle caps, and one of the most-used street art freewalls in the city–this section of Philly is home to a collection art in the public space that’s distinctly South Philly! And on this tour, we’re exploring it all.

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Streets Dept Excursion: The History of Philly Murals

Join us for a walk through Fairmount and Callowhill to explore one of Philadelphia’s most historically significant stretches of public art. Along the way, we’ll visit landmark murals that helped transform mural making in Philadelphia, redefining what public art could be and setting the stage for the city’s international reputation. We’ll also take in a number of bold contemporary works that continue to push the medium forward through new ideas, techniques, and collaborations. Together, these murals tell the story of how Philadelphia became one of the world’s great mural cities—and why artists here continue to shape the future of public art.

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Streets Dept Excursion: Public Art on the Parkway

The Benjamin Franklin Parkway holds some of Philadelphia’s most recognizable public art—but it also rewards anyone willing to slow down and really look. On this walking tour, we’ll move along this sweeping civic corridor in search of dozens of works tucked into its rhythm: monumental sculptures you expect to see, alongside quieter pieces that blend into the landscape, slip behind sightlines, or reveal themselves only at certain angles and distances. From celebrated landmarks to subtle interventions and easily missed details, we’ll trace how this stretch of the city became an open-air museum where the obvious and the overlooked live side by side.