When Summit Artspace, a Knight Arts grantee, was opening its current exhibit, “Streetscapes: Akron in Plein Air,” Sandy Kreisman, executive director of Akron Area Arts Alliance, was abuzz and duly excited about a project she was working on before, during, and as she hoped, after the opening reception of the other show.

The one catching her imagination is “First Love,” an exhibit opening Friday, August 2 and running through August 16 in the Summit Artspace gallery behind the current display.

Kreisman was diligently hanging what looks like outdoor clothes line – with clothespins in abundance – for what she said will be an installation art piece by creative genius Hunter Franks.

Hunter Franks. Photo from Twitter

Franks is the recipient of a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to go to four cities of interest to the organization – Akron, Ohio; Macon, Ga.; Detroit; and Philadelphia. (Akron is the end stop on his “Creative Interventions Tour.”)

For this exhibit, the idea of “First Love” embraces a sense of community in terms of getting to know one another on a subject that everyone has experienced – one’s first bout of love. Participants are to write a short narrative about their experience and hang the note on the line so that others may read it.

That’s kind of cool, because people will see that there are good folks all around the town, ones who have had different stories, no doubt, but similar feelings. One can surely guess there will a lot of smiles and even more recognition of what the writer was going through.

So the invitation is there to come and add to the fun by writing out your story as part of the August 2 weekend of Downtown Akron Artwalk in Summit Artspace from 5 – 10 p.m. If you cannot make it, or if that is not the way you would prefer to participate, apparently you can do your stuff through Twitter at #FIRSTLOVE according to organizers. You can also go there to read even more entries.

For walk-ins, though, you also get to see the other exhibits in residence in the other galleries. If you come the weekend of August 2, you can take in all the other events with the Downtown Akron Artwalk.

Franks is a truly creative kind of guy. His Creative Interventions Tour looks for ways, according to official statements, to help people talk to each other, but also help them build meaningful and lasting relationships with each other and their community.

“First Love” is but one project. Franks, it is reported, will lead workshops that bring people from diverse social and economic backgrounds together. He will craft the interactive activities with input from local organizations, taking into account specific community needs and document his experiences in each of the cities to share lessons and assess how small-scale, temporary interventions can create wide community impact.

A creative intervention, it is said, uses art in public space to foster spontaneous interactions between strangers with the goal of inspiring people to think differently about where they live and the relationships they have in their community. One such project event is to be held in various places on August 5 as part of National Night Out Against Crime. Franks wants people to create postcards describing how much they like their neighborhood. He apparently will send those off for people in distant communities to read – again, an event where sharing something we all experience but from a particular point of view and locale becomes the focus.

“First Love” will be on display 12 – 9 p.m. on Thursday and 12 – 5 p.m. Friday through August 16 at Summit Artspace, 140 E. Market St., Akron; 330-376-8480; www.akronareaarts.org. Admission is free.