The site works in close synergy with the websites Arte Urbana a Torino (on the Geoportale of Città di Torino), Geografie metropolitane (by Urban Lab) and MAD of Collegno.
The sources used to register the artworks have been: existing repertoires of public artworks in Torino, systematical field surveys in all the districts and the municipalities of the belt, reasoning with Città di Torino and with the art associations MAU, Monkeys Evolution, Il Cerchio e le Gocce.
The criteria to select the artworks have been defined in order to exclude from the census works:
— in places not freely accessible to the public;
— that are integral part of a building (such as the decorations on Art Nouveau buildings);
— not particularly "artistic" and lacking a clear aesthetic research;
— visible only at particular times (such as Luci d'Artista, only from November to January, or paintings on shutters, visible only when shops are closed).

The period considered is that from the 90s of the 20th to now, since this has been a season of huge spread of public art in the area of Torino.
Even with the aforementioned methodological cautions, it is likely that some artworks have escaped our census, also because the patrimony of public art – including new creations and cancellations – is by its nature extremely "unstable". Thus, we will be grateful to anyone who can report us omissions or errors on the website Arte per strada Torino.
The photographs on the site concern all the individual works surveyed, in the case of collective works (such as the several "jam wall" on which various artists intervene) generally only a few photographs have been taken as examples of the kind of artworks present there.
It is expected an annual update of the census and, therefore, of the artworks on this website.

The concept of public art does not refer to the (non-private) ownership of works and artistic handwork, but to the fact that they are paintings, sculptures and artistic installations settled in public spaces (streets and squares), that is to say outside museums and art galleries.
Public art has a really ancient history, often with the function of giving prestige and legitimizing an institutional power, a religious belief, a country identity.
In the mid-1900s the desire to create artistic forms no longer dedicated to the elites, but able to involve the most marginal social groups, spreads. The term "public art" is coined precisely in that context, to define a new way of presenting and enjoying art, inserting the works into the living social fabric of the city, often through participatory processes in which artists directly interact with citizens, strengthening their identity and sense of belonging to the community.

Since the end of the 20th century, public art has registered a tendency towards a progressive institutionalization: the self-managed spontaneity of murals is increasingly conveyed into projects conceived or supported by public or private institutions, street art, no more antagonist "crime", increasingly joins programs of urban regeneration, in agreement with authorities.
In parallel, the asset of public art often becomes a competitive factor, playing a role in improving the perception of urban environments and, therefore, resulting in an element of attractiveness in many cities, for example for tourists.

In the policies to revive the city implemented in Torino in the last quarter of a century, public art plays an important role, both by transforming some urban landscapes – aspiring, in particular, to give them a new identity – and by helping to strengthen the image of a “city of contemporary art”, also based on events such as Artissima and Paratissima, as well as on various art museums (GAM, Castello di Rivoli, etc.).
Not only has public art grown remarkably in Torino, but the works have spread more and more from the center to the outskirt: thus, wether up to the 1970s two thirds of the artworks were gathered in the downtown, today over two thirds are in the outskirt and in the urban belt.

The greatest concentration of works of public art is in the district of Campidoglio, thanks to the almost thirty-year activity of the MAU – Museo di Arte Urbana, which has so far involved over a hundred artists.
Other important projects are those directed by the Municipality (such as Murarte, Pic Turin etc.), in collaboration with several art associations.
Some collections of works spread throughout the city have been entrusted to a single artist, as in the case of the thematic glass panels by Ugo Nespolo in the subway stations or the walls painted by Millo in the district of Barriera di Milano.