Rolex established the Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative in 2002 to catalyse the transfer of artistic knowledge from this generation to the next. This cause is intrinsic to Rolex. After all, it has upheld the traditions and craft of watchmaking at exemplary standards for over a century now.
But Rolex does not upkeep traditions for traditions’ sake. Instead, it wants to maintain a solid foundation upon which to innovate and progress the future of watchmaking. The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, too, functions similarly. A mentor avails their lifetime’s worth of expertise in their field to empower a talented protégé and help realise the latter’s personal artistic aspirations and visions, buoyed by robust fundamentals. The programme predominantly focuses on architecture, dance, film, literature, music, theatre, and visual arts. There is, however, an open category that accommodates other pursuits.
The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative’s 2020-2022 chapter recently concluded at the Rolex Arts Weekend 2022 (9-10 September) with a showcase held in partnership with the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The latter has been instrumental in the development of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative since its inauguration.
This chapter’s mentor and protégé pairings (left to right in gallery above) includes:
- Filmmaker, Spike Lee with protégé, Kyle Bell
- Theatre mentor, Phyllida Lloyd with protégé Whitney White
- Lin-Manuel Miranda, best known as the creator and original star of Broadway’s Tony-winning Hamilton, with open category protégé, Agustina San Martín
- Visual arts mentor Carrie Mae Weems with protégé Camila Rodríguez Triana
What is amazing is that all the pairs hold multiple titles and accolades beyond focus of their engagement.
Spike Lee was firm in wanting to mentor a Native American filmmaker and thus chose Bell. Lee even advised Bell on a short film the latter was working on. Lee says, “Filmmaking has to be one of the most harsh professions known to humankind. What I try to do with my students is give knowledge, my own personal experiences and confidence, but there’s always going to be challenges. I’m going on my fourth decade and there are still challenges. It’s not smooth sailing. That’s part of filmmaking. It’s about, how do you get past and triumph over those challenges.”
Bell shares in return, “Through this mentorship, everything I’ve learned with Spike, not only in my career, just as a person, as a friend, I’m always going to take with me wherever I go. To give back to my people, and pass down to the next generation of future filmmakers in my tribe.”
Phyllida Lloyd and Whitney White hit it off from the get-go over their shared passion for Shakespeare. Seeing White’s accomplishments, Lloyd opened her UK community to help her protégé grow beyond the shores of the USA.
But there was another value that Lloyd wanted to impress upon her protégé. “Whitney is inundated with suggestions and offers. I mean she could do any of these things. And it’s a question of whether if she does everything, all the time, is that going to be the most fruitful route for her. The fear for a young artist, and I’ve been through this, is if you turn somebody down, will you ever work again? Part of my job as a mentor is to go, ‘It’s fine to say no. They will ask you again because you’re a great artist’.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Agustina San Martín found artistic kinship on various fronts. Miranda even had his protégé work with him on his film directorial debut. Miranda says, “Agustina ended up being an invaluable sounding board while directing my first movie. She is such a vivid, poetic and imaginative thinker. That was wonderful for me.”
As for Martin, he shares, “I’ve learned so many things from Lin-Manuel and from this mentorship. I am focusing now on making a narrative for a broader audience. Lin-Manuel is a master of that. It has been wonderful having this conversation with him as I move into this fresh path for myself.”
Carrie Mae Weems and Camila Rodríguez Triana connected over their work’s shared questions of identity and belonging. Weems, one of the most influential contemporary American artists, says, “I love the way she [Camila] works with her hands. This ability to work really beautifully and intricately. She’s taken the notion of women’s craft and pushed it forward into a much more conceptual range and she’s done it beautifully.” Rodríguez Triana has similar sentiments, adding that Weems had made her realise the possibilities that exist to showcase art not only as an aesthetic reflection, but an important social and political commitment. This cause is important to Rodríguez Triana and her work.
The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative follows the adage that in a mentorship relationship, both sides should walk away with knowledge gains from their time together. The aim is for the mentor and protégé to leave the programme enriched and then, continue to pursue newer heights in their individual fields of excellence.