Sheffield art installation aimed at raising awareness of women's safety is burned to the ground by arsonists

The installation at Ponderosa park was a wooden structure which lit up at night.

It featured cut out poems written by Sheffield women based on their experiences of street harrassment and an engraved Experience Map, a map of locations in the city where victims have experienced catcalling and street harassment.

It was unveiled at the beginning of the month by campaigners Our Bodies Our Streets in collaboration with the University of Sheffield but a Telegraph reader saw that it had been set on fire on Saturday night.

Mandy Nesbitt said the attack “said it all” and added: "It is such a shame this message has been silenced.”

Funded by the university’s Department of Landscape Architecture, the installation was part of a campaign to help make public spaces feel safer.

Kai Damani, a student at the university and a volunteer with Our Bodies Our Streets, designed the structure of the sculpture. He said the installation had ‘resonated’ with many local people and featured ‘powerful’ stories of local women.

He told the Telegraph today: “It was a good reflection of what it is like to be a woman walking through Sheffield at night and to see those words and emotions reduced to a pile of ash on the ground is devastating.

"That there are people out there with so much disdain and hatred towards women – it is so upsetting that is part of our society.”

The 19-year-old said the installation had taken weeks of hard work to create and the team had tried to make it as resilient as possible.

He believed the flames would have been quite large when the attack occurred.

"I could imagine it was quite dangerous, which makes it even more shocking.

"I don’t personally ever expect to find out who was responsible for this and I think that is part of the problem.”

However he said he hoped the incident would help to continue the conversation over women’s safety in Sheffield.

"Maybe it will not have died in vain”, he added.

Sheffield Council supported the installation of the artwork. The authority has applied for funding from the Government's Safer Streets Fund, with lighting at Ponderosa Park included as a proposal.

Dr Anna Jorgensen, Head of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield said: “We are enormously proud to support Our Bodies Our Streets in their commitment to making Sheffield’s spaces safer for everyone to enjoy.“We were delighted to work with students on this creative and inspiring initiative within the community and we are saddened to hear the news about the vandalisation of the art installation.“Whilst the circumstances surrounding the vandalisation of the piece are unknown, its destruction highlights the importance of the issues that it represents.”