Joan Colbert isn’t hoping for familiar paintings of flowers for the upcoming “Fresh & Springy“ juried show at the Summit Artspace gallery — just the opposite.

For the eighth year of the annual show, the artist/gallery coordinator has thrown down the gauntlet to Akron-area artists with this challenge: Get out of your comfort zone.

Sometimes there’s a theme for this show at the downtown Akron gallery, sometimes not. Either way, Colbert wants to deliver a big nudge to artist’s creativity.

“Personally, I like themes. They challenge the artist to come up with something new to them, either a new medium or something else that’s fresh to them,’’ Colbert says. And a lot of people have taken the themes to heart, she says, creating surprising installations and some pieces that people still talk about, years later.

No one will know what to expect when they arrive for the opening on March 9. Some years, the gallery is bursting at the seams; other years, it’s a more pared-down show, says Colbert. The volume and, of course, the style of the art selected, depend on the judges — this year, Deborah Pinter, director of the Orange Art Center (near Cleveland) and Akron artist/craftsperson Leandra Drumm.

Works in any medium, in 2-D or 3-D, are accepted for consideration. Artists of all ages, throughout the three-county area encompassing and surrounding Akron, can submit entries. Akron’s Summa Foundation is offering cash prizes of $500, $300 and $200 for this year’s winners. (For guidelines on entering the show, visit www.summitartspace.org.)

The “Fresh & Springy” show marks just one event in the 10^th anniversary season of Summit Artspace (a Knight Arts grantee), which is a project of the Akron Area Arts Alliance in partnership with Summit County. Summit Artspace has grown to three floors, with working artists ensconced in upstairs studios and newly renovated office space available for rent. The 1927 building is the original home of the Beacon Journal — the flagship of the Knight newspaper chain.

March 1 is the deadline for entries to be delivered to the gallery. Who knows what will turn up?

“Fresh & Springy” opens on Friday, March 9, with a meet-the-artists reception from 5 to 7 p.m., and runs through April 14. Free admission and parking. Summit Artspace: 140 E. Market St., Akron; 330-376-8480; www.summitartspace.org.