As a way to mark their 50th Festival this summer, the Marblehead Festival of Arts is having a Fifty Cods for Fifty Festivals auction. They have invited local artists to decorate large codfish with any medium they desire. Then, these artistic pieces will be sold through an online auction running through July 5th. All of the proceeds from the auction will support future programs done through the Marlehead Festival of Arts.

Now that all of the codfish have been decorated, people can look at them in two ways. They are being displayed by local merchants along Atlantic Avenue, Pleasant Street and Washington Street. Each cod has a QR code as part of its display that can be scanned and then linked to the online auction. This means that you can bid on the cod right there from your phone or tablet.

The artwork is also all on view at the online auction website. Have fun!

In April of 2015, David Morse passed away. He was raised in Marblehead and graduated from Holderness School in New Hampshire and Hamline University. He was voted a lifelong member of the Gerry No. 5 V.F.A. in Marblehead and was the chairman of the blood drive. He organized three drives a year for 21 years.

In his memory, the next Gerry 5 blood drive will be June 11 from 1-7pm. Steak tips and french fries will be offered to everyone who donates.

The first Business Safety Summit will take place on Thursday, June 18th at the Montvale Plaza in Stoneham. All community business owners, corporate security and human resource professionals and others are invited to this event.

The summit will open an opportunity for the business community to discuss business safety ”focused on recognizing, responding to, and minimizing incidents of concern and violence in the workplace,” as their webpage states.

“We are excited to be able to gather such a group of speakers and presenters for our inaugural Business Safety Summit,” said NEMLEC Foundation Director Sharon Crowley. “We hope to foster a dialog and help develop better working relationships between municipal police departments and their local businesses.”

The Marine Arts Gallery has just moved to Marblehead. Brothers and co-owners Peter and Phil Kiernan opened a new space at 26 Atlantic Avenue. The gallery has nautical scenes painted by 19th century and contemporary artists from around the world.

As Peter Kiernan said, “We really love what we do.” The gallery was started by Russell Kiernan, the current owners’ father in 1968. He collected his own paintings while the family lived in Beverly.

There are about 75 paintings in the gallery and several hundred more that are in storage in Salem. They had a gallery in Naples, Florida as well but closed it two years ago. The gallery is open from Monday to Saturday 10-5. Watch for a grand opening that should happening at the end of May.

At a ceremony at the Marblehead school on Monday, May 4, 19 charter schools in the state received charter renewals. The ceremony also marked the 20th anniversary of charter school operation in Massachusetts.

All charter schools are given five year charters and then, at the end of that time, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education reviews the school’s performance and decides whether or not to renew the charters. The Marblehead Community Charter School was among the list of those that were renewed.

Two Marblehead businesses are going to be a bit more famous this week. They are being spotlighted Thursday on the Made From America show on Great American Country TV. On the first episode of the new show, Gabe Johnson, owner of a Seattle T-shirt company, will explore small US towns and businesses. He will then display the business on a T-shirt to hep promote businesses in retails stores and online.

The first pick for Gabe include Redd’s Pond Boatworks and The Barnacle Restaurant.

Made from America premieres on Great America Country TV (Comcast Ch. 279 or Verizon Ch. 723) at 9 p.m. on Thursday, April 30. The 9 p.m. episode will feature Redd’s Pond Boatworks, and the 9:30 p.m. episode will head to Marblehead’s The Barnacle Restaurant.

Marblehead has a new finance director in Lynn resident Alison Nieto. She is taking over the position that was left vacant when John McGinn stepped own after almost a decade on the job. She is currently the special assistant to the provost of financial affairs at the University of Massachusetts Boston. As the finance director of Marblehead, she will be managing the town’s financial operations and information-technology projects and infrastructure.

About the new position Nieto said, “I’ve done my research. I’m willing to learn the ins and out of Marblehead, and do whatever it takes.”

She continued, “Marblehead is financially stable. And, I think, all you need is someone to come in and take the reigns over from someone who’s done a good job and continue to do that.”