User:Kremein/Richard sean manning

Richard Sean Manning Born (October 11, 1961

Biography
Richard Sean Manning graduated from Starpoint High School located in Lockport, New York in 1980 and went on to trade school to become a machinist. He worked after school remodeling homes with his beloved late father, and showed his leadership skills from the youngest age.

He moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1984 and worked his way up in Jabil Circuits starting in maintenance and climbed the ladder into management. After a successful career, he retired in 2002 to immerse himself in his artistic goals, his family winery, and to concentrate on his philanthropic pursuits.

He was involved in the purchase and total restoration of a 31,000 sq foot, 1926 historic seaboard 'Train Station', located on 22nd Street South in the Warehouse Arts District of St. Petersburg, Florida, which was home to his private studios, until 2013, and a thriving art community offering studio and gallery space as well as an impressive selection of kilns. The Train Station has since become one of the largest working potteries in the Southeast United States, under the direction of The Morean Center for Clay.

Richard Sean Manning is a prolific artist who works in a number of mediums, including ink/acrylic on paper and oil on canvas. He creates his own frames using exotic and rare wood, and his skills include working with metal and blown glass. He is also an accomplished ceramic artist who works with up to five tons of clay each year to produce art that is sought after by private collectors and museums.

His mentors have been amongst an illustrious group of recognized ceramic artists including the late Rudy Autio, Don Reitz, Paul Soldner and Peter Voulkos, whom he had met at The Train Station, which became the mecca to the most important ceramic artists of the day.

He still has an office/studio in St. Pete Beach, Florida, but his main art facility is located on the grounds of his family winery in Lockport, New York, where he maintains a 15,000 sq foot space with 4 major kilns.

Seeing wine making as an art form, Richard Sean Manning and his brothers established Freedom Run Winery as a family legacy in 2005, on 200 acres of fertile land on the bench of the Niagara Escarpment. They have won numerous international awards and have had to increase the size of their production and barrels rooms, to accommodate upwards of 3500 visitors on wine trail weekends. They are recognized as the leading winery in the area for weddings and events.

Artist and philanthropist Richard Sean Manning works tirelessly to plant seeds of a global consciousness towards charitable giving and to promote unity through art.

He was inspired to create a series of ceramic '9/11 Memorial Towers' and to donate them to museums across the country to commemorate 9/11. The first permanent exhibit, valued at $65K, was installed to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11 at the Great Explorations Children's Museum located in St. Petersburg, Florida. This whimsical, seven foot tall work of art, was glazed in bright colors to be easy on the eye of young children, as they rotate on a base of steel.

He is honored that a seven foot tall pair of his signature ceramic '9/11 Memorial Towers' have been accepted as a permanent exhibit at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum located at ground zero in New York City. They will be installed in early 2015 as an exhibit of 'Tribute/Response Art' that is situated at the conclusion of the primary historical exhibition. His art will leave visitors with an uplifting final moment on their discovery of this iconic date forever embedded in the history of The United States of America, and indeed the world.

"The mission of this display is to allow visitors -- who are probably weary from reading labels and the quantity of walking they must do in the museum galleries at bedrock - to take in the art-responses economically, without needing much context to grasp their emotional genesis. We think that the two looming Tower forms created by Mr. Manning are instantly recognizable in this regard." as stated by Jan Seidler Ramirez, Chief Curator & Director of Collections at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

Cognizant of the need to raise funds for worthy causes prompted him to paint a series of 'Unity Art'. He has pledged to paint 3000 original works of art as a memorial to all those who perished on 9/11. Even though his art is inspired by this tragedy, his paintings are diverse in color and content, raises social awareness and is considered happy art.

Together with his wife Laura, they co-founded The Manning Arts and designed an online gallery of his original paintings, which are available in high quality giclèe reproductions, in various sizes, representing almost 5 million works of art, to benefit charity.

Any 501c3 organization can register online to participate in this innovative fundraising initiative that has the potential of raising over $400 million for worthy causes. A unique link to The Manning Arts online art gallery is created for each participating charity to share with their supporters.

The key to success is for participating charitable organizations to get the word out and to keep this innovative art fundraiser active and ongoing. As with any fundraiser, it requires promoting it to encourage supporters to click on the link which will bring them to the online art gallery.

Whenever a supporter orders a work of art for their home, office or as a gift, 66% of their purchase is instantly deposited to the PayPal account of the originating charity as a charitable contribution from the supporter. The Manning Arts receives the remaining 34% and their fulfillment team reproduces and ships the chosen art directly to the supporter. It's as simple as that!

Richard Sean Manning is a supporter of the arts and he has been on the board of the Palladium Theater as well as the Mahaffey Theater, where The Manning Arts was launched in February 2010.

He is a major benefactor, past Vice President and is on the board of The First Tee of St Petersburg and is an active participant in helping to teach core values to young people to help them to excel in life, through the game of golf. He even painted a unique series in their honor.

He is past president of Lockport Jaycee’s, the Art Center of St Petersburg and Live Arts Peninsula and received a coveted John Eckert Memorial Award in 2008, and in 2010 was awarded the Starpoint Academic Wall of Fame and Achievement Award for his excellence in his chosen field, and his outstanding contribution to humanity.

Richard Sean Manning and his wife Laura, frequently travel between their homes in St Pete Beach, Florida and in Lockport, New York.