The international children's charity, Arms Around The Child, have expressed their profound gratitude to all the artists, committee members, press and collectors who supported the Art Around The Child, 'Home is where the Heart is' art auction at the Fiat Chrysler Motor Village in London this month.

£50,000 was raised from the silent and online auction, and the live auction with Hugh Edmeades, Christie's International Director of Auctioneering. Curator Lee Sharrock worked closely with charity global director Ellie George Milner and partnered with Monica Colussi to make it a huge success.

The money will help start building a home for 50 HIV+ orphans in Jaipur, India who the charity has supported and developed for the past 10 years. I was honoured to become a member of the event committee last year, and I travelled to Jaipur to meet the kids and help them create their own art that was included in the auction - you can read more about that trip earlier on my blog. I also donated some of my taxidermy assemblage art pieces to the auction.

A charity spokesman said; "We urgently need to build the home as we have been given notice to quit our current rented home due to stigma around HIV/AIDS and pressure from the neighbours. We have had to move the children 4 times due to similar circumstances. The Rajasthan Government have donated the land and we need to fund the building."

"Additionally we work in Ghana with orphan children rescued from slavery and trafficking and in South Africa with children who are exposed to HIV/AIDS through abuse and children who live in child headed households. So a big thank you to everyone who made the exhibition and auction possible, your support means we can start to lay the foundations for the new home in Jaipur & fund our ongoing work in India and Africa."

You can see a full list of the artists involved on the image below.