The Third Space Café in Smithfield was transformed into an art auction house as the Supporting Children Out Of Poverty (SCOOP) Foundation held its annual art auction on Wednesday night.

The auction was held to raise money for SCOOP towards building a new school in Cambodia, which is the third school they have built.

The auction saw 95 pieces of artwork go under the hammer from artists nationwide and even a few pieces from abroad were available as well.

The artists who provided pieces for the auction ranged from full-time artists to graduates from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Thomas Street.

Also available for sale on the night was the ‘SCOOP Art Cook Book’ which was a book containing paintings from artists with the central theme of food. Paintings that featured in the book were also under the hammer at the auction.

The chief organiser of the event, Andrew Sweeney, was delighted with how the night played out. He said: “I was overwhelmed. It was an absolute success. It looks like we hit €20,000 under the hammer. I think there was about 100 people in the room, there was a really good energy around the place. Good things are going to happen from now on.”

On a side note, Sweeney announced that he was doing his final fundraiser with the organisation, having established it in 2011 so he felt that this one was important for him as well as the organisation.

“This is definitely one of the best for the publicity we got and the money we raised. This is my last one so I feel I’ve gone out with a bang,” he added.

There is hope also that there will be a dinner organised by the SCOOP Foundation before Christmas which will run along a similar theme to the cookbook project that was a major part of this auction.

To find out more about the organisation and to buy the ‘SCOOP Art Cook Book’, you can visit their website scoopfoundation.com or else find them on both Facebook and Twitter.