Marblehead Festival of Arts Announces '50 Cods for 50 Festivals'

The Marblehead Festival of Arts is celebrating its 50th Festival this summer. To commemorate this exciting milestone, the Festival invited local artists to decorate large wooden codfish using any artistic medium of their choosing. These one-of-a-kind cods are being sold via an online auction running through July 5, the last day of the Festival. All proceeds from the Fifty Cods for Fifty Festivals auction will go directly to support future Marblehead Festival of Arts programs and scholarships.

“The response from the local arts community to join in the celebration has been amazing,” comments Tammy Picone Nohelty, co-chair of the event. Artistic efforts are now complete, and there are two ways for the public to see and bid on these codfish creations:

Look for decorated codfish displayed by local merchants in downtown Marblehead along Atlantic Avenue, Pleasant Street and Washington Street as part of a joint venture between the Festival and Marblehead businesses. Each cod is displayed with a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone or tablet and linked directly to the on-line auction, enabling visitors to bid on that cod right on the spot.

Also, all of these unique creations can be viewed on any device by visiting the Festival’s on-line auction website Fifty Cods for Fifty Festivals (www.biddingforgood.com/MFoA). Each cod has an individual auction page with a photograph of the cod as well as information on the contributing artist and the business where that codfish is displayed. “We are so excited to be able to share this diverse artwork, and we encourage people to see these decorated cods and participate in the on-line auction”, states Mary Alice Alexander, co-chair of the event.

The Festival encourages people interested in viewing and purchasing these cods to register at the Fifty Cods for Fifty Festivals auction website (www.biddingforgood.com/MFoA), view the cods on-line or at local merchants, and start bidding.

The above text and included photos were submitted by Marblehead Festival of Arts. Credit for the art is as follows: Ellie Tomlinson, Mark Minelli, Joan Hooper, Mary Hershenhan, Chris Clark, Rachel Branham and Patti Baker