ROLEX celebrates 20 years of its Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative

In all these endeavours, Rolex supports artistic excellence and the transmission of knowledge to future generations, making a lasting contribution to culture worldwide. With these endeavours, Rolex supports artistic excellence to ensure that the world’s artistic heritage is passed on from generation to generation in a manner that transcends boundaries of nations, cultures and disciplines. Тoday’s greatest creative minds help young talent to flourish through the transformative Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, a mentoring programme that is celebrating its 20th anniversary. It is unique among corporate arts programmes in both scope and scale and reflects the fact that over more than 100 years, the company has passed its skills from one generation of watchmakers to the next, each receiving the combined knowledge of all who came before.

To be ahead of your time

With the creation of the mentoring program, encompassing diverse art forms – visual arts, dance, theatre, music, literature, cinema, architecture – Rolex is an undisputed pioneer ahead of its time. 20 years later, it shows its powerful influence with its huge community of artists from all over the world. Since 2002 so far, 1,350 people from 120 countries have been nominated to participate in the program, and hundreds of artists and arts leaders have participated as advisors. To date, 63 mentors have selected their 63 protégés from 41 countries. The growth of this global creative community is among the program's most significant achievements.

Calibre of Artists

One of the impressive aspects of the initiative is the extraordinary calibre of the artistes drawn to the mission. Brian Eno, Stephen Frears, David Hockney, Zakir Hussain, Mario Vargas Llosa are just some of the big names, who have generously given their time, experience, and knowledge to participate. 20 years ago, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative earned respect in artistic circles for its distinctive vision of mentoring – generous and global. The program has helped outstanding young talents to develop their skills using intercultural and interdisciplinary dialogue.

Rolex Arts Festival

To mark the anniversary, at the end of May, Rolex gathered the world's most talented and respected artists in Athens for an Arts Festival. After holding Arts Weekends in New York City, London, Venice, Mexico City, Berlin, Cape Town and Brooklyn, Rolex has chosen Athens, an ancient crucible for culture where art thrived centuries ago and remains at the forefront of life.

The Rolex Arts Festival not only provides an occasion to look back at what has been accomplished over the past 20 years, but also a rare opportunity for the public to experience both the height of artistic exchange among the dozens of artists participating, as well as the benefits of the personal transmission of knowledge that stand the test of time and are basic to the initiative.