The Tiziano Project | blog

May 2010 Archives

The New Tiziano Project

By Jon Vidar on May 25, 2010 9:56 AM | No Comments

It's been five months since you helped The Tiziano Project win $25,000 from the Chase Community Giving Competition on Facebook. While we may have been quiet since then, we have not been still.

During the last several months, we have reworked The Tiziano Project from the ground up - no aspect of the organization has gone untouched. Our team has put in hundreds of hours of hard work, thought, and diligence, and today, The Tiziano Project is pleased to announce our new look and feel.

Our website has changed directions significantly. We have refocused it to be a community resource, not just for our students, but also for like-minded organizations.

At The Tiziano Project, we wholeheartedly believe that the key to nonprofit, community journalism is collaboration. As such, we will be giving away our curricula, technologies, and knowledge through this website as we further develop as an organization during the next three months.

At our core, however, we are still an organization dedicated to promoting high-quality storytelling. So, we've also launched a new sub-site -- The Tiziano Project | reports -- a dedicated portal to our student's work.

Finally, today also marks a special day for us, as Victoria Fine and myself officially head to Iraq to teach the Summer 2010 workshop. We have something extra special planned this year for distributing content and will be announcing it within the next month.

For now, please take a moment and check out the new sites. We would love to hear your feedback and hope you enjoy the new Tiziano Project.


Jon Vidar

Executive Director, The Tiziano Project

Apply for Tiziano Iraq 2010

By Jon Vidar on May 18, 2010 12:34 AM | No Comments

Applications are now being accepted for both student and professional tracks for The Tiziano Project's 2010 workshop in Erbil, Iraq.

The workshop will run from June 14th - August 6th and students will be expected to meet two or three days a week for both in-class and one-on-one instruction. Students will receive training in basic journalism skills, including interviewing, photography, video and multimedia, as well as learn essential online self-marketing and networking skills.

The workshop will be free of charge and we will provide equipment for instruction. Unfortunately, The Tiziano Project cannot provide any accommodations or living expenses at this time.

To apply, please download the application and send the completed file and additional material to: apply@tizianoproject.org

Meet the 2010 Iraq Mentors

By Jon Vidar on May 10, 2010 11:48 AM | No Comments

Jon Vidar
Jon Vidar - Executive Director

Jon Vidar is a freelance photographer who focuses on capturing moments and telling stories through new media and visual imagery.

Based out of Los Angeles, CA, Jon works regularly for the Associated Press with photos published by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, USA Today and NEED Magazine. His work has received honors from Getty Images, the National Press Photographers Association, FotoweekDC, and Microsoft.

In 2007, Jon joined The Tiziano Project and helped establish the first base of operations in Kigali, Rwanda. In the Summer of 2008, he piloted a two-week long multimedia workshop in Northern Iraq and recently secured the project a $25,000 grant from Chase Trust to conduct a three-month program in Iraqi Kurdistan during the summer of 2010.

Jon earned a master's degree in Communication Management from the Annenberg School for Communication with concentrations in Information Technology and Strategic Corporate Communications.

» jvidar@tizianoproject.org

Victoria Fine
Victoria Fine - Director of Advancement and Outreach

Victoria Fine is a new media journalist and an editor for Huffington Post Impact. Her work has been featured both in the U.S. and abroad, including the Chicago Tribune, AOL.com, and L'Officiel, a fashion magazine based in Paris. She is also the managing editor of Modern Overland, a travel guidebook series dedicated to providing tech savvy travelers the information they need to make global exploration socially sustainable and ecofriendly. Fine has authored two books, including "Fundamental Talent," a handbook on top-level management succession. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and holds a master's degree in new media storytelling.

» vfine@tizianoproject.org

Grant Slater
Grant Slater - Multimedia and Videography Specialist / Mentor

Grant Slater is a multimedia journalist and writer. He has written for The Associated Press from the Middle East, the former Soviet Union and the United States. His work has also appeared in Chicagoist, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Jewish Telegraphic Agency and publications in his home state of Oklahoma.

He holds bachelor's degrees in journalism and Russian language from the University of Oklahoma and is currently pursuing a master's degree in journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

Starting in 2007, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the countries of the former Soviet Union, traveling widely across the region. His coverage included the 2008 conflict in Georgia and the local fallout from the global financial crisis.

» gslater@tizianoproject.org

The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict, and underreported regions with the equipment, training, and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.