This post lists 15 locations in NYC, accessible to visitors, where you can find high-quality street art including murals and graffiti created by street artists.
We compiled this list from first-hand experience.
We lead daily walking tours of street art and graffiti through NYC.
Our lead guides, Izzy and Mar, are locals in the Brooklyn and Manhattan street art scenes, and with their help, we put together this list of must-see locations.
We also asked the roughly 200k members of our NYC Travel Tips Facebook group what street art and graffiti pieces they liked, and we incorporated a few in this post.
Our group is made up of locals (including our tour guides), veteran travelers to NYC, and newbies.
You don't need to join the group to read the posts, comments, and recommendations.
15 PLACES FOR GRAFFITI AND STREET ART IN NYC
Starting in the late 1960s and early 1970s, spray paint became a powerful tool for social change in New York City.
In the face of mass consumerism, graffiti writers and street artists fought back with their individual expression and social commentary.
Among the first graffiti artists to garner attention were Zephyr (Andrew Witten), Taki 183, and Blade.
Back then, if you wanted to see the latest works by these kings of graffiti, you either had to live in the inner city or wait for a graffiti artist to emblaze their name across the subway car.
Nowadays, new murals are popping up every day in the concrete jungle.
Below are the best places to see both timeless masterpieces and the latest works of street art in NYC.
TIP: If you prefer a guided tour, which offers a brief history of the neighborhood, and a detailed description of the murals then, be sure to go on our pay-what-you-likeBushwick Graffiti and Street Art Tour.
Excellent4.9★★★★★ Based on 2240 reviews from review us onLiz S. ★★★★★ Jon was great and very knowledgeable! He knew all the tips and tricks. Great tour!Ingrid P. ★★★★★ We had a wonderful walk with John over the Brooklyn bridge, through Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo. He had so much to tell and offered on top of that great tips for our stay in NY ❤️A must do activity! You just get more out of your trip with John!Natasha W. ★★★★★ My husband Ryan and I went on the Bushwick walking tour with Mars on the 29th November. Well what can we say! This tour was beyond excellent. Mars’s knowledge of the artists was second to none. This thrilled my husband who is an artist himself. Mars went above and beyond to show us around, but also took my teenage daughter and her friend to the thrift shops. Thank you so much Mars. We’ve told our graffiti mates in England to book you when they go to NYC. 😁Susan L. ★★★★★ We took the food tour with John of the Lower East Side and couldn't eat another thing I was so full. Started the tour with a knish and the incredible history behind that little shop. We then had emanates, gelato, dumplings, cookies, pickles, and bialys. The history behind the food and its evolution over time made the tour even more interesting.Steven T. ★★★★★ We took the Grand Central Tour with John Gallagher as our guide. It was the perfect idea for a rainy Sunday in New York. We'd actually done the tour a few years ago but enjoyed this one just as much. John is a great tour guide and I'd recommend this and indeed, all of the free tours by foot New York tours.Jessica R. ★★★★★ We had an amazing time on our holiday lights tour with John. He was an amazing story teller, showed us sights off the beaten path and unbelievably kept up with 30 of us in VERY crowded areas. We saw beautiful lights, heard great stories and found out some wonderful places to visit after our tour! John loves his job and it shows! He even had our group sing happy birthday to my sister! This was our most favorite thing we did in NYC this trip (next to seeing MJ, but that one is HARD to beat)Jill B. ★★★★★ OMG! The Christmas Lights tour was the best! John Gallagher was a lot of fun and extremely knowledgeable about the city.Seema D. ★★★★★ Great tour! Enjoyed a lot.Leighana C. ★★★★★ John took us on the walking tour of SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown. What a fantastic time we had. He was so very informative and we had a wonderful time. They even sang happy birthday to my son. Don’t miss out on this tour!Aditi P. ★★★★★ Took the Soho tour with John and it was quite simply outstanding. He was so funny and knowledgable, and shared so many pop culture references. We took great snack breaks. The tour starts early to avoid the crowds so be on time and please think to tip.daniel P. ★★★★★ Tour with John for Soho Little Italy Chinatown tour, great knowledge and humor, nice pace, highly recommended.Alisha H. ★★★★★ Great tour! We had so much fun and met some new people. I will definitely be doing a this again.Guy ★★★★★ We've taken several tours during our vacation to NYC, had a great time in all of themMel R. ★★★★★ Take your tour with Jon! The concept of these tours is neat. Our tour guide was enjoyable, knowledgeable and professional. We felt safe the entire time, got to see lots of major sites for the Holiday Lights tour and Jon went the extra mile to make it special by taking pictures, sharing tips and extending himself even after the tour. 10 out of 10 I'd do it again.David P. ★★★★★ Great way to see the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Heights, the Manhattan skyline and DUMBO. John was a great guide who provided lots of interesting and useful information on both the are covered by the tour and also NYC in general. Highly recommended.Michael M. ★★★★★ The Harlem walking tour was great. Ryan is a living and walking encyclopaedia of cultural knowledge and showed us parts of the city you'd otherwise ignore.Allan B. ★★★★★ Jon was amazing. Very knowledgeable and informative. Good sense of humor! Picked appropriate spot to stop for a quick break!Raluca M ★★★★★ I enjoyed a very nice guided tour of SoHo, Little Italy and ChinaTown with John. He is a great story teller with history facts, true stories and very attentive to the whole group. Thanks a lot!Helen C. ★★★★★ Harlem walking tour was excellent.Lady Altoviese is a wonderful guide with so much history to share, learnt a lot!Toni R. ★★★★★ I love these walking tours! I've been to 4 so far! Everyone is extremely nice and so much to learn! Thanks John G 🙂Gillian B. ★★★★★ What a fabulous find! Thank you John for a wonderful Brooklyn Bridge/DUMBO tour. Will definitely recommend!!Anand K. ★★★★★ Did multiple tours across newyork and loved them all. The hosts are knowledgeable entertaining and give you the right start to your tripBrooklyn - John was an amazing guide with interesting stories narrated in the.most engaging manner.Harlem - Loved tge passion and energy of our host Alta....she mad stories from the past relevant, fun, real and easy to relate to.Alan B. ★★★★★ Fantastic tour with Jon. His knowledge and dry sense of humour made the tour an absolute highlight of our New York trip. Will definitely search him out on our next visitKerry C. ★★★★★ I recently discovered Free Tours by Foot and I have taken 2 tours. I did a food tour of Greenwich Villlage with Mary and my whole family did a tour of Lower Manhattan with Renee. Both tours were very interesting. Mary did a great job incorporating the history with the food. Renee did a great job of basing her tour on the interest of the participants and engaged the kids. My 10 year old son said he loved the Lower Manhattan tour. I also loved the fact that neither tour guide begged for tips. We will definitely look for tours in Other cities we vsist!Markus H. ★★★★★ Many thanks to Renee for an interesting and humorous morning.Tasmin D. ★★★★★ Our Tour Guide John Gallagher was so informative and friendly. I learnt so much about New York City and the history of Brooklyn. The scenery at that time of day was spectacular. John gave great tips on more things to see in the city and good places to eat after the tour had finished. i will be booking another tour with Free Tours by Foot due to this great experience. It was great to have a tour with a local who really knows the city.John M. ★★★★★ Great tour with John Gallagher around Grand Central. Added so much in explaining not just what was there, but why it was there as well as the building’s history. Well worth booking a tour. Also, his twilight Brooklyn tour is just as good!Jamie ★★★★☆ We did the Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown tour with John Gallagher. We enjoyed our tour & learned some interesting facts. John was witty & did his best to engage with everyone on the tour, even though it was large. Our only suggestion would be to eliminate one of the two food stops as we would have preferred to hear more instead of stop & take time out to eat when it wasn't even lunch time (tour is over by 12:15p). The first food stop was also a restroom stop so our suggestion would be to eliminate the second. Otherwise, a fun, enjoyable tour that we would recommend!Eliot M. ★★★★★ Great walking tour of Brooklyn Bridge and parts of Brooklyn, with nice suggestions for more things to do after.Subhasish B. ★★★★★ We did the Greenwich Village food tour which was a fun medley of architectural/historical facts and food stops. I appreciated that I could partake in this experience as a vegetarian.Thais M. ★★★★★ The tour was amazing. Renée was fun and informative.Nick R. ★★★★★ Ron who did the Highline tour was terrific. Very kind and nice man who made a huge effortMichael W. ★★★★★ Thanks to John we got a lot of interesting information about this beautiful place, Grand Central Terminal. The tour of this historic building was very impressive and we also received useful information about our stay in New Yorkmarillok ★★★★★ Robert W. ★★★★★ John Gallagher took us to one of the best Brooklyn bridge sunset photo experiences!! Highly recommendHelene C. ★★★★★ Jon was a great guide and all the food was great. I highly recommend this tour!dayle D. ★★★★★ Our lower east side food tour with Jon yesterday was fantastic! Truly the best tour we have taken anywhere. He's informative, funny, the food stops were delicious and generous. I so appreciated that he used a microphone also. Could hear every word even on the noisy streets. Free tours by foot is a great company. Thank you.Caroline L. ★★★★★ Excellent Brooklyn tour with John Gallagher ! Full of informations, fun and beautiful surprises 🙂 thank you so much !Elisabeth W. ★★★★★ Becky I. ★★★★★ My husband and I have completed many walking tours. The tour of Grand Central Station with John Gallagher was excellant and was one of our favorites. 5 stars from a couple from Philadelphia visitng NYC.Emmanuelle C. ★★★★★ We had a great time and learnt a lot about the history of the city with Jon today, many thanks!karla ★★★★★ We took the Brooklyn bridge twilight tour in April and it was excellent! Our guide Meredith really knew her stuff, told us a lot of interesting facts (especially about the tragic story surrounding the bridge, but also more) and was able to answer most of our questions. Would definitely recommend!We also took the Harlem walking tour with Ryan and I’ve rarely learned that much in such a short time - about the history, culture and architecture of Harlem, but also of NYC as a whole - he really managed to make it all come together. Extremely informative and enjoyable!Rubi S. ★★★★★ Hubby and I took a tour with John Gallagher through SOHO, Little Italy, and Chinatown. John is a fabulous tour guide and provided plenty of history and information about the area with colorful stories and plenty of personality. We love Free Tours by Foot and have taken many not only in NYC but San Francisco, and Boston. We highly recommend them to all our friends. Bring your walking shoes, $5 for delicious fried dumplings, and get ready to enjoy. Tip generously, these guys are worth it.Daniel T. ★★★★★ I always love doing a walking tour in a new city, our Tour of New York (little italy, Soho and china town) did not disappoint! Our tour guide John was super knowledge and funny. I felt that I got a really authentic and unique experience of New York. Would 100% recommendBob L. ★★★★★ My wife and I did the tour of Soho, Chinatown and Little Italy on October 21st with John Gallagher as the tour guide, and enjoyed every minute of it.John was informative and entertaining and we couldn’t have asked for a better guide. I would highly recommend this tour!Tanya S. ★★★★★ A wonderful morning crossing the Brooklyn bridge, touring DUMBO and scaling the Brooklyn Heights! Tour was super informative and lead by the wonderful guide Renee! The information was interesting and relative! Tour flowed well and 3 1/2 hours went in a blink of an eye! One of the best tours we have taken, and not just in NYC! You won’t be disappointed!Rebecca O. ★★★★★ LOVED John's Grand Central Station Tour, it was a highlight of my trip. He was informative, the tour clipped along, we saw some of the other surrounding buildings (which felt like a bonus). He is a true New Yorker and I am so glad we decided to join this tour last minute!Matthew S. ★★★★★ Really enjoyed the Lower East Side food tour with Jon Noto. Super knowledgeable, learnt loads. Highly recommend!Martin W. ★★★★★ Jon does an awesome tour, perfectly mixing sights, history and tastes with a humorous twist. Great value for money. Would happily do it all over againximena A. ★★★★★ Took a tour of grand central station with John and it was great! He was so knowledgeable about everything we were being shown and it was a fun way to see this New York City staple. Will definitely be taking more tours!
2. World Trade Mural Project
For years, Ground Zero was a construction zone that reminded New Yorkers and visitors of the September 11th attacks.
But if you visit the World Trade Center’s Oculus today, you will see the work of some of our favorite street artists commissioned by 2WTC.
Artists: BoogieRez, Stickymonger, JCBKNY Photo by: tour guide Mar
Don’t miss these eye-catching walls, which have given downtown Manhattan a new sense of hope.
Mar and Izzy, street art tour guides with Free Tours by Foot, are proud to have consulted on the World Trade Mural Street Art Project, which was a result of their co-curating the 69th floor of 4WTC.
Harlem is definitely worth a visit for street art, particularly murals.
We spot at least 5 different murals on our tours of Harlem, including the Know Your Rights mural.
There is one particularly large mural on the side of the Harlem Hospital, which consists of 3 panels telling stories of the African-American experience in the U.S. and was commissioned back in the Great Depression.
In East Harlem, there is the Graffiti Hall of Fame, which still periodically invites lesser-known artists to come and paint their murals.
Unfortunately, most of the artwork is behind a gate, but you can still see it from a distance.
A pair of relatively new murals to the neighborhood are of Dizzy Gillespie, the great jazz musician well associated with Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance.
There are a number of other smaller murals throughout Harlem.
In 1982, legendary artist Keith Haring painted his first iconic large-scale mural on a wall on the corner of Houston St. and Bowery (map).
Back then, that wall and building were privately owned and Haring and the artists who followed his lead had no permission to paint there.
Fortunately, the property was bought by a real estate developer who was also an art aficionado, Tony Goldman.
In 2008, Goldman brought on well-known curator Jeffrey Deitch to manage the wall (he was then replaced by the owner of a contemporary art gallery, The Hole).
In the video, you can see a time-lapse of artist Ron English transforming the wall into his unique style of mural art.
English has also contributed to the L.I.S.A. Project which has artwork on walls throughout Little Italy.
Select artists from around the world are invited to bring their unique style to the wall. The wall is repainted by new artists every several months.
Past murals included works by Shepard Fairey, Kenny Scharf, AIKO, Os Gemeos, and many others.
TIP: This seminal street art wall is included in our pay-what-you-like Manhattan Graffiti and Street Art Tour. Your guide will discuss the history of the wall as well as the current mural on the wall when you visit.
5. The Little Italy Street Art Project (L.I.S.A.)
This non-profit organization brings street artists to the Little Italy neighborhood in Lower Manhattan to paint murals on the walls of participating businesses and residential buildings, mostly along historic Mulberry Street.
There are several important pieces here, though they do change periodically.
This museum is located in the basement of the CitizenM Hotel on the Lower East Side.
It's a family reunion of sorts for the original artists of 5Pointz in Long Island City.
The museum is free of charge but you should make a reservation because it's more a stairwell than a traditional museum and they limit the number of people in it at any time.
The museum is just 1 block away from the start of our Lower Manhattan Street Art Tour, something you could do just before the tour begins.
7. The High Line
This revolutionary park that sits on the remains of an elevated commercial rail line on Manhattan's West Side has a changing contemporary public art program that includes murals.
But it's also the street art that is parked up alongside the High Line that is of interest to the visitor.
The WCMP is a massive collection of murals meant to beautify the neighborhood and transform how people experience their environment.
The project was launched in 2010 as a way to beautify the neighborhood.
The first mural project had over 40 murals.
Now the WCMP has more than 140 murals by both New York graffiti artists and international artists.!
It is free to visit and open to the public 24/7, all year long. See the WCMP website for more information.
10. DUMBO Walls
The DUMBO Walls project began in 2012.
Eight walls near the York Street subway station were selected as sites for large murals by famed artists like Shepard Fairey, MOMO, Yuko Shimizu, and several more.
Some of these eight sites have the original murals, while others have new ones.
For example, as of 2019, one can still see the original, though somewhat faded Shepard Fairey mural at the corner of York and Jay Street.
Also, some of CAM's huge colorful owls are still visible along York Street between Adams and Pearl Street.
Other walls have had several new murals since the DUMBO Walls were installed, like the corrugated metal wall on Front Street between Adams Street and Pearl Street.
Street art is temporary in nature.
There may be a specific artist's mural on a wall one year and then the following year a new mural may be painted.
On the positive side, all sorts of art pop up in DUMBO constantly, so be on the lookout for random art in unexpected places!
Be sure to look at our post on things to do in DUMBO to find out what else to do there.
And if you are wondering how the neighborhood got its name (no, it's not named after Disney's loveable elephant), read our post on What does the acronym DUMBO stand for?"
12. Crack is Wack by Keith Haring at E. 127 St/2 Ave and Harlem River Drive on the Upper East Side.
13. Hammer Boy by Banksy at 233 W 79th St on the Upper West Side.
14. Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol by Kobra, at N. 9th St. just east of Bedford Ave in Williamsburg.
15. Big Pun Memorial by Tats Cru at 910 Rogers Place, in the Bronx.
Contributions to this post by Izzy and Mar.
About The Author
Stephen Pickhardt
Stephen is the CEO of Free Tours by Foot and has overseen the transformation of a local walking tour company into a global tour community and traveler’s advice platform. He has personally led thousands of group tours in the US and Europe, and is an expert in trip planning and sightseeing, with a focus on budget travelers.
Stephen has been published and featured in dozens of publications including The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Yahoo, Washington.org, and more.
