Contest Rules
Street Art Cities 'Best Of' Awards
Last updated: January 2026
The Street Art Cities Awards celebrate the best street art and street art cities from around the world. We want the awards to be fair, fun, and meaningful for everyone involved—artists, cities, and the global street art community.
This document explains how the awards work, what's expected of participants, and what happens if the rules are broken.
Why
We started the Street Art Awards because we think street art deserves serious, global recognition.
Street art reaches more people than almost any other art form. As people who have spent years building a platform for this culture, we see the Awards as an accelerator to help us with this ambition.
It combines three perspectives that rarely come together: what the public loves, what artists respect, and what experts consider meaningful. That mix tries to figure out what really matters in street art.
For artists, it creates real visibility and career momentum. For cities, it rewards long term investment in public art. For the community, it turns spectators into participants.
We built these awards not because there was a blueprint, but because there was a gap. A global and relevant culture without a fair way to be recognised.
That gap is what we are trying to fill.
Ideas or feedback? Please reach out to us after reading the rest of this article.
How the Awards work
The Street Art Cities Awards feature four categories, each with its own voting process and eligibility criteria.
Category 1: Best Mural of the World (public vote)
This is the big one—a public celebration of the year's most-loved artwork. Anyone can vote.
How it works
- Nominees are selected from the top 3 winners of the 12 monthly “Best of the Month” votes throughout the year
- Voting is open to the public via the SAC website
- Voters select their favourite artwork and confirm their vote by clicking a link sent to their email address
- Each person may vote once per email address
What it is
This is a popularity contest, but in the best possible way. It's about what resonates with people. Winning can genuinely boost an artist's career, and that's something worth celebrating.
Category 2: Artist Choice (panel vote)
Artists choose their favourite artwork by a fellow artist. This category highlights what the creative community values.
How it works
- SAC judges create a shortlist of nominees from artworks added to SAC in the past year
- Only artists with a verified artist profile on SAC may vote
- Any artist with works listed on SAC can verify their profile and participate
What it is
Recognition from your peers carries special weight. This category surfaces work that artists themselves find inspiring, innovative, or important.
Category 3: Expert Spotlight (panel vote)
An expert panel highlights artworks with exceptional artistic or social value—works that push boundaries or make a meaningful impact on communities.
How it works
- A panel of street art industry veterans pre-selects the nominees
- Voting is open to verified artists and a curated panel of selected experts
- The selection often highlights unique artworks, community projects, or pieces with significant cultural impact
What it is
Whilst the public vote categories don't necessarily always reward only artistic value, this category makes up for that, by letting experts judge artworks solely on artistic and social impact.
Category 4: World’s Best Street Art City (new for 2025, public vote)
Which city is doing street art right? The public decides.
How it works
- SAC creates a shortlist based on objective metrics: number of artworks documented on SAC, visitor engagement, community activity, and other factors
- Voting is open to the public using the same email verification process as Best of 2025
What it is
A way to enable cities to show off their investments into Street Art, and to give them recognition and support to continue investing into public art.
Disclaimer: The nominated cities are selected based on data available within the Street Art Cities platform. Because the platform is community driven and continuously expanding, not all cities with active street art scenes are currently represented. The shortlist reflects the cities with sufficient mapped artworks, activity, and engagement data at the time of nomination.
Voting integrity
We take several measures to ensure votes are legitimate:
- Email verification: Votes must be confirmed via a link sent to the voter's email address
- One person, one vote: Each email address may only vote once per category
- Automated detection: We monitor for suspicious patterns, including votes from email addresses that don't appear to belong to real people, and unusual volumes of votes from single IP addresses
- Review and removal: Votes identified as fraudulent or manipulated may be removed at SAC's discretion
For artist-only voting categories, voters must have a verified artist profile linked to documented work on SAC.
The rules
These rules exist to keep the awards fair and to protect the integrity of the street art community. They apply to all participants: nominated artists, cities, voters, and anyone promoting nominees.
What's encouraged
Do promote your nomination. Share it on social media, tell your followers, celebrate your achievement. We love seeing the community rally around great work.
Do encourage people to vote. Asking your audience to vote for you is completely fine—that's how public voting works.
Do engage positively. Celebrate other nominees, share work you admire, and be a good ambassador for street art.
What's not allowed
Vote Buying and Incentives
Don't offer anything of value in exchange for votes. This includes but is not limited to:
- Cash payments or financial incentives
- Gifts, merchandise, or giveaways conditional on voting
- Entry into prize drawings that require voting
- Discounts, free products, or services offered to voters
- Any form of “vote for me and get X” arrangement
This rule applies to artists, cities, organisers, fans, and any third parties acting on their behalf. If someone is running a giveaway that requires voting for you and you're aware of it, you're responsible for stopping it.
Vote Manipulation
Don't artificially inflate votes. This includes:
- Creating multiple accounts or email addresses to vote more than once
- Using bots, scripts, or automated tools to submit votes
- Paying for votes or vote-generating services
- Coordinating with others to create fake accounts for voting
Coordinated Deceptive Campaigns
Don't organise or participate in schemes to manipulate results. This includes:
- Vote-trading arrangements (“I'll vote for you if you vote for me”)
- Organised bloc voting where groups agree to vote as a unit for strategic purposes
- Campaigns that mislead voters about the voting process or other nominees
Note: Genuine community enthusiasm is welcome. If your local neighbourhood wants to vote for their favourite mural, that's great. The line is crossed when voting becomes organised, strategic, and designed to game the system rather than reflect genuine preference.
Negative Campaigning and Harassment
Don't disparage other nominees. This includes:
- Making false or misleading statements about other artists or their work
- Spreading rumours or misinformation about competitors
- Publicly attacking or criticising other nominees to influence voting
Don't harass voters, other nominees, or SAC staff. This includes:
- Pressuring people to vote a certain way
- Targeting individuals who support other nominees
- Any form of bullying, threats, or intimidation
Fraudulent Profiles
Don't create fake or misleading profiles. For categories requiring verified artist status:
- Only verify profiles for artists who genuinely created the documented work
- Don't create fake artist profiles to gain voting access
- Don't misrepresent your connection to documented artworks
For Cities participating in “Best Street Art City”
Cities and municipal representatives are welcome to promote their nomination, but the same rules apply:
- You may share your nomination and encourage residents and visitors to vote
- You may not offer incentives for voting (no “vote for us and win a trip” campaigns)
- You may not purchase votes or engage services to artificially inflate results
- Government-backed campaigns that cross into vote manipulation territory will be treated the same as individual violations
What happens if rules are broken
We want to resolve issues fairly and proportionately. Our goal is to maintain a positive community, not to catch people out on technicalities.
Our approach
We investigate first. If we become aware of potential rule violations, we look into it before taking action. Context matters.
We communicate privately. Warnings and enforcement actions are handled directly with the individuals or organisations involved, not announced publicly. We're not interested in public shaming.
We use our judgment. Not every situation fits neatly into categories. We consider intent, impact, whether it's a first-time issue, and how the person responds when contacted.
Enforcement actions
Informal guidance: For minor issues or unclear situations, we may reach out to clarify expectations without issuing a formal warning.
Warning: For clear rule violations, we issue a formal warning. Warnings are recorded and remain on file.
Vote removal: Votes identified as fraudulent or manipulated may be removed from the count.
Disqualification from current awards: In serious cases, a nominee may be disqualified from the current year's awards.
Future participation ban: After two formal warnings, artists or cities may be disqualified from participating in future SAC Awards. In cases of severe or deliberate manipulation, a ban may be issued without prior warnings.
SAC's discretion
Street Art Cities reserves the right to:
- Investigate suspected violations
- Remove votes we believe to be fraudulent
- Disqualify nominees who violate the rules
- Adjust results if manipulation is discovered after winners are announced
- Update these rules at any time
All decisions regarding rule violations and enforcement are made by SAC and are final.
Legal notices
No Prize or Compensation Winners receive recognition and promotional exposure only. SAC does not provide any monetary prizes, gifts, travel expenses, appearance fees, or other compensation to nominees or winners. Participation in the awards is voluntary and confers no financial entitlement.
Limitation of Liability SAC is not responsible for technical failures, lost votes, data transmission errors, or any other issues that may affect voting or results. SAC reserves the right to modify, suspend, or cancel the awards at any time if circumstances require it.
Reporting concerns
If you become aware of potential rule violations—vote buying, fake accounts, harassment, or other issues—please let us know.
This also goes for suggestions on how to improve our contest rules or the awards in general, we’d love to hear from you.
Email: awards@streetartcities.com
Reports are handled confidentially. We don't reveal who reported concerns, and we investigate before taking action.
The Spirit of the Awards
These awards exist to celebrate street art and the people who create it. They're meant to shine a light on great work, support artists' careers, and recognise the cities that embrace street art culture.
We know the rules can't cover every situation, and the system will never be perfect or feel completely 'fair' to everyone, but we do try to make sure that with each yearly edition we improve our process.
When in doubt, ask yourself: “Is what I'm doing fair to other nominees and the community?” If the answer is yes, you're probably fine. If you're not sure, reach out and ask us.
Let's keep this fun, fair, and focused on what matters—amazing street art.
Questions?
If you have questions about these rules or want to check whether something is allowed before you do it, contact us at awards@streetartcities.com. We're happy to clarify.
These rules may be updated from time to time. The current version will always be available on the SAC website: streetartcities.com/awards/rules
