A champion night for this Sunderland business boss after picking up a string of national awards

Fiona Simpson is the founder of Sunderland-based ARTventurers which runs art classes, parties and workshops for babies, toddlers and children.

And what a night it was for Fiona and her business at the What's On 4 Kids Awards last night.

The company won the Most Loved Academic/Creative Activity 2020 category and the Most Loved Baby Activity 2020. Its head office is in the Hope Street Xchange in Sunderland.

Fiona was also named Industry Champion of the Year mainly because of her work in getting children back to classes safety during the pandemic.

Fiona is no stranger to success. She won the Women In Business Award at the first ever Sunderland Echo Wearside Women In Business competition in 2019.

Now she is a winner again of a competition which was held virtually.

Fiona said: “They're awards which are voted for by parents and families who attend clubs and classes. Normally every year in October there's an awards ceremony in London and we travel down for it, but obviously this year things are different.

"So instead of getting dressed up for an awards ceremony in London, the awards were online instead last night. Hundreds of activity providers from up and down the country joined in - it was a great evening and the best thing was that you could join in wearing your pyjamas with a glass of fizz in hand.”

It was back in 2011 that Fiona formed ARTventurers as a way for children to enjoy creative play.

Now, its a UK-wide business with dozens of franchise branches.

Back in June, we told how Fiona called on the government to urgently consider the children’s activities industry during the lockdown

Fiona sits on the board of the Children’s Activities Association and has been involved in the publication of the Association’s own guide for children’s activity providers on how they could implement safety measures and look to reassure customers when they were able to reopen.

She led the working party which produced the guidelines for getting back to classes safely for the childrens activities industry and supporting and advising other providers during lockdown.

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