A new outdoor art box featuring an installation by a world-renowned artist has been targeted by vandals.

Nine large posters of well-known faces in the community, displayed on the Stretch art structure at Newgate Gap shelter in Margate, were torn down.

The month-long exhibition was launched just last week and is by French artist JR.

It features 48 large black and white portraits of people in Thanet as part of the Inside Out project, which runs in countries around the world as 'people's art' to celebrate communities.

Photographs were taken of many of the Isle's artists and residents, including writer Melissa Todd, DJ Dean Thatcher and MOBO award-winning musician Pat Have Mercy, and the posters then created in New York.

The installation was put up on the new Stretch box, which will be used to display poster art over the next two years.

It is already booked up for six months, with exhibitions from artists including Margate's Charlie Everisto-Boyce as well as an upcoming display by the new Love Café.

Stretch, which works with marginalised groups such as homeless people and ex-offenders through art projects, is the brainchild of the project.

Dean Stalham from the charity says the vandalism is very upsetting.

"We contacted JR and he says this never happens to his posters," said Mr Stalham.

"I have ordered replacements and will be putting them back up on Monday. We have also ordered CCTV cameras."

Mr Stalham says the JR installation is receiving lots of positive feedback, though, and has made the site a real focal point.

Stretch took over Newgate Gap shelter from Thanet District Council in 2020, after the site was initially earmarked for demolition.

The charity gained planning permission for the temporary art box to create the innovative outdoor gallery.

The long-term plan for the site, however, is to create a 'national museum for outsider art'.