The master artists, including Olafur Eliasson (visual arts), Alejandro González Iñárritu (film), Michael Ondaatje (literature), Alexei Ratmansky (dance), Kaija Saariaho (music), Jennifer Tipton (theatre) and Peter Zumthor (architecture), will spend a year in creative collaboration and exchange with an emerging talent in their respective fields.

Each mentor will spend at least six weeks, over the course of a year, with his or her protégé.

Each protégé receives 25,000 Swiss francs to support his or her participation in the program and is eligible for an additional 25,000 Swiss francs for the creation of a new work at the conclusion of the mentoring year.

The protégés will be announced in mid-2014, following a global search to identify them, and the mentoring year will begin soon afterwards.

"These artists are all highly respected leaders in their fields," Rebecca Irvin, head of philanthropy at Rolex, said in a statement. "We are grateful that they have generously offered to nurture a new generation of artists. Over the past 11 years, we have seen remarkable, enduring collaborations and friendships form between mentors and protégés. We look forward to seeing more of this rich creative dialogue." The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative is a biennial philanthropic program created by Rolex. Previous mentors include Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, Martin Scorsese and Peter Sellars.

For more information, visit rolexmentorprotege.com.