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Comedian Dave Chappelle will perform at the Johnny Mercer Theatre Dec. 20. Tickets are on sale now here.

The new Fresh Exhibitions Fellowship Program of Art Rise Savannah — formerly Desotorow Gallery — is designed to "create opportunities and match them to a deserving artist and art sponsor," a spokesperson says.

Eleven submissions were considered "through a rubric analyzing five aspects of the proposed exhibition": workmanship, concept, professionalism, use of space, community benefit.

Judges Scott Boylston, Deborah Oden, and Paula Fogarty critiqued the submissions.

Recipients, works, and First Friday Art March reception dates for the Fresh Exhibitions 2014 Winter Season are:

Scott Barrett “Abandoned”, January 3

Pablo Serrano “Vernacular Puerto Rico”, February 7

Kristin Myers “On The Surface”, March 7

Tiffany Cash “Intertwined”, April 4

The City of Savannah received 83 submissions in the College Art Contest for original student artwork "depicting the beauty of Savannah’s historic City Hall," a spokesperson says.

Students from Savannah Technical College, Armstrong Atlantic State University and Savannah College of Art & Design participated. Members of the public can now cast an online vote to help select the best pieces to feature in an upcoming special exhibit highlighting the building.

The gallery of submissions is available at www.savannahga.gov/ArtContest. To cast your vote for your favorite, view the piece and click the “thumbs up” icon in the upper right corner. Voting will be open through Thursday, Dec. 19.

Three hundred seventy seven graduates will be honored Saturday during Savannah College of Art and Design’s inaugural fall commencement ceremony, at the Johnny Mercer Theatre. Academy Award winning director-producer Lee Daniels will deliver the commencement address.

The first film from Daniels’ production company was 2001’s “Monster’s Ball,” which marked Daniels as the first sole African-American producer of an Academy Award-nominated and —winning film.

Daniels’ project, “Precious,” featured at the 2009 Savannah Film Festival and based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire, won two Academy Awards in 2010 for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress. The film received a total of six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing, with Daniels nominated as Best Director. This selection made him the second African-American director to be nominated for an Oscar.

The 25th Anniversary Season of the Savannah Music Festival (SMF) features an international roster of artists, replete with one-time only productions, new collaborations and commissioned works that celebrate the organization’s commitment to artistic excellence across the entire spectrum of the musical arts.

Read Bill DeYoung's piece in Connect about it here.

“Whether it’s a 400-year old masterpiece or the premiere of new work, it is the clear and unfiltered exchange between hungry audiences and willing artists that continues to fuel us,” remarks SMF Executive & Artistic Director Rob Gibson.

Tickets for the 2014 festival, which includes more than 100 productions between March 20th and April 5th, range from $15-85 and can be purchased in person at 216 E. Broughton Street in Savannah, by phone at 912-525-5050 and online at www.savannahmusicfestival.org.

CinemaSavannah presents Prince Avalanche (2013) Nov. 9 at 5 and 8 p.m. at Muse Arts Warehouse. Cost is $8.

With performances from Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch, Prince Avalanche is an offbeat comedy about two men painting traffic lines on a country highway ravaged by wildfire. Against this dramatic setting, the men bicker and joke with each other, eventually developing an unlikely friendship. Directed by David Gordon Green. Loosely adapted from an Icelandic film called Either Way. Silver Bear winner of the Berlin International Festival. 94 minutes.

Go to www.musesavannah.org for more info

Partnering with Savannah State University’s Players by the Sea, the Armstrong Atlantic State University Department of Art, Music & Theatre Masquers troupe will perform The Amen Corner, a comic drama in three-acts by novelist and playwright James Baldwin. Performances are November 7-17th on Armstrong’s Jenkins Hall Theater stage.

In the mid 1950’s, Baldwin wrote The Amen Corner, a play that eventually became a Broadway hit, in which he examined the phenomenon of storefront Pentecostal religion.

It's the story of Harlem storefront preacher Margaret Alexander "who is about to see her world crumble," says a department spokesperson.

Her son and church organist, David, is set on following in the footsteps of his father, jazz musician, Luke. When the errant husband and father comes home to die, Sister Margaret finds herself losing everything but coming to terms with her own true sense of faith.

“Self discovery no matter how painful is a key theme threaded throughout the play,” said Armstrong’s Elizabeth Desnoyers-Colas, one of the productions co-directors. “All of the characters show that they have something in their lives that eventually as one character says ‘will be uncovered’.”

In what is believed to be an historical first of this type of collaboration between the sister institutions, Desnoyers-Colas and Savannah State’s Darryl Thompson, M.F.A. co-direct this production of Baldwin’s venture into full-length plays.

All performances are at Armstrong's Jenkins Hall Theater. Thursday through Saturday performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Sunday performances begin at 3 p.m.

Regular reserved-seating admission: Only $10. Discounts available to military, seniors, alumni association members, and students/children. No refunds or exchanges. Armstrong students, faculty and staff admitted free of charge with valid PirateCard.

Visitors to the 2014 Savannah Book Festival this February may now pre-purchase select books written by participating authors and still have those books autographed during the Festival, Feb. 13-16.

Books must be purchased through the Festival website savannahbookfestival.org in order to be eligible. In the past, only books purchased at the Festival could be autographed.

Books that qualify for this offer include Wilson by Scott Berg, We Are Water by Wally Lamb, Beatles vs. Stones by John McMillian, Company Man by John Rizzo, Stella Bain by Anita Shreve and American Mirror, The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell by Deborah Solomon.

Books purchased online before the Festival will come with an Author Signing Card, which will authorize the book for author signing during the Festival.

According to Robin Gold, Savannah Book Festival executive director, “Twenty percent of all online sales through the Festival website come back to the Festival, helping to keep our main Festival day free and open to the public."

Savannah Stopover Music Festival says the lineup for next year’s festival (March 6-8) will be unveiled Thursday, November 21 during a special performance by Athens band Futurebirds at The Jinx.

Tickets for the announcement party are $10 and will be available online and at The Jinx beginning October 24.

Futurebirds are one of the top bands to come out of the Athens area in the last decade. Their most recent local performance was at The Trustees Theatre at the 2012 Savannah Music Festival.

The festival also announced that Advance Pre-Sale passes for Savannah Stopover 2014 will go on sale on November 1 for three weeks. The Pre-Sale passes, good for all 3 days, will be $60 and will be available on Eventbrite.

All other festival passes will go on sale the night of the announcement party on November 21. Additional information and links to purchase tickets will be available on www.savannahstopover.com in coming weeks.

MusicFile Productions, LLC announces that legendary, totally awesome Brazilian band Os Mutantes will play their forst Savannah show November 20 at Dollhouse Studios on Industry Drive. Rising stars Capsula, from Buenos Aires, Argentina will open.

The Brazilian psychedelic rock band was formed in Sao Paulo during the Brazilian Tropicália movement in 1966 by Sérgio Dias (guitar, bass, vocals), Arnaldo Baptista (bass, keyboards, vocals) and Rita Lee (vocals).

The group has influenced everyone from of Montreal to Talking Heads, Kurt Cobain and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Tickets for the event are $18 in advance and $20 at the door. Tickets go on sale at noon on October 11th via showclix.com/event/osmutantes

Beer & Wine will be available for sale and the event is 21+. ID is required.

For more information go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/509722389123152/