Red Bank, Have You Met Sam Quintas? She's So Artsy Smartsy

"As soon as I walked in here and saw this space and the windows and the river beyond...just the sheer openness," Sam Quintas said, "I thought to myself...this is absolute heaven...yeah, I'm never leaving." 

That revelation has turned into a blessing for the children of Red Bank who know her as Miss Sam. Quintas became the children’s librarian here at the Red Bank Library a year and a half ago, and in that time has turned that heavenly space into a kids’ center for the arts.

Besides the typical storytimes that most libraries have for tots, Quintas has introduced Yoga Kids, a free weekly half hour of yoga; various workshops, including a recent visit and lesson from pop-modern artist, Michael Albert; and her highly successful arts program, Artsy Smartsy.

Quintas came to the Red Bank Library after working for years in her hometown Sayreville Public Library.  It was there that she developed Artsy Smartsy into a program attended by between 40 and 50 children.  And after only two sessions in Red Bank, the monthly art and letters event, already boasts attendance by some 20 - 30 kids.

Artsy Smarsty, for kids ages 7 and up, occurs the last Saturday of every month except May. Because of Memorial Day weekend the program will be May 21 at 2:30 pm.   Quintas said the program coincides nicely with the musical event, Acoustic Saturdays, that happens upstairs.  Parents have peace of mind that their children are creating pieces of art downstairs while they enjoy some of the area's best singer/song writer/musicians.

Each month children gather around Quintas as she reads about the artist's life, influences and his or her influence on art and the world.  Kids then move to the “canvas”, where they recreate the master's work to be hung in the library for a time and then on their own hallowed hallways and refrigerators.  In the first two installments of Artsy Smartsy, Quintas covered Van Gogh and painted their own Starry Nights and then moved on to Leonardo Da Vinci and reimagined Mona Lisa.

Quintas said she brought three of her passions together to create Artsy Smartsy, art, history and books.  "I always wanted to be an artist," she said.  "I used to go to my library as a kid and check out these books called, Getting To Know You: Artists (the same books that Quintas uses today in the program).  I read all about them and wanted to be like them, but I can't draw or paint."

Despite her sense that she lacks ability (you be the judge, she paints and displays her work along with the kids each month), Quintas, a history major in college with some early learning experience, is happy to be able to inspire budding artists as an expression of her own.

"A lot of kids," she said, "look at famous artist's work and hear about how they created them and they just think, I could never do that, Artsy Smartsy maybe teaches them and shows them that they can."

In Sayreville, Quintas opened the children up to the work of Michelangelo and attached paper to the underside of tables.  She had them lie beneath the tables and recreate physical forms and features like the master and then she hung them on the library ceiling.  Saturday Quintas will expose Red Bank kids to another artist with an unusual style and method, abstract expressionist, Jackson Pollack, who used an exaggerated "drip" technique, pouring, whipping and spilling paint onto canvas from brushes, cans and palette knives to create his art.  "Yeah," Quintas said, "we'll be doing that outside the library."

For more information about this and other Red Bank Children's Library events and programs stop in and see Miss Sam.  You can register for Artsy Smartsy in person or over the phone.  New masters are always welcome.

"One of the best parts of my job," Quintas concluded, "is seeing these kids connect with art and each other.  Before my eyes I see kids become artists and then strangers become friends.  It doesn't get any better than that."