Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette Art Thinking
See this page in
[FR]
The Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette is all about bringing together artists and entrepreneurs, linking art with business in a new way.
It supports creative practices by connecting artists with entrepreneurs, businesses with cultural institutions, and artistic creation with business strategy. It encourages everyone to embrace the "improbable" to think like creators. Through a unique method called "Art Thinking," developed at ESCP, the Galeries Lafayette group and ESCP offer a way to support, encourage, and spread the act of creation.
A few words from
Guillaume Houzé
Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group
“The Improbable Chair is all about bringing together artists and entrepreneurs, linking art with business in a new way. It supports creative practices by connecting artists with entrepreneurs, businesses with cultural institutions, and artistic creation with business strategy. It encourages everyone to embrace the ‘improbable’ to think like creators. Through a unique method called ‘Art Thinking’, developed at ESCP, the Galeries Lafayette group and ESCP offer a way to support, encourage, and spread the act of creation.”
Guillaume Houzé, Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group Photo Credit: ©Lucasziwel
A few words from
Sylvain Bureau
Professor at ESCP Business School
Scientific Director of the Improbable Chair
“Our initial belief was simple: to make creation accessible to as many people as possible. To achieve this, we developed a method called Art Thinking, which characterises how artists, entrepreneurs, and scientists go through similar steps in the creative process, such as gift-giving, deviating, destroying and drifting. For 15 years, our Art-Thinking seminars have trained thousands of students, entrepreneurs, managers, and researchers across a dozen countries and twenty universities and schools. Partnering with Galeries Lafayette group, a company with a strong entrepreneurial DNA, our chair combines theory and practice to amplify this approach and promote creators and creation in the broadest sense.”
Professor Sylvain Bureau, Scientific Director of the Improbable Chair
Objectives
The Chair has two major complementary goals:
- Support scientific research to better understand creative practices
- Teach the Art Thinking method and spread the Improbable pedagogy worldwide
Art Thinking not only helps participants unleash their innate creative potential; it also promotes collaboration, listening, leadership, negotiation, and constructive dialogue. Participants learn to question themselves, leverage failure, establish partnerships, and develop an agile approach to uncertainty.
Three areas of activity
- Scientific publications
- Doctoral theses and final dissertations
- Improbable Siesta: seminar bringing together researchers, artists, and experts in creation
- Spreading the Improbable method at ESCP and beyond
- Designing initial training in Art Thinking
- Training Art Thinking instructors
- Conferences and workshops on Art Thinking
- Exhibitions and Improbable openings
- Improbable residencies (artist/scientist/entrepreneur triads)
“This Chair is the story of an encounter between visionary creators who understood early on how future generations of students and entrepreneurs would need artistic and creative practices to prepare for the world of tomorrow. Through this collaboration, ESCP is grateful to the Galeries Lafayette group for opening up new playgrounds for unprecedented and improbable creations!”
Pascale Pernet, Director of chairs and corporate sponsorship
ppernet@escp.eu
Focus on...

Article
On Tuesday, 19th March 2024, Léon Laulusa, Dean and Executive President of ESCP, Jean-Stéphane Arcis, President of the ESCP Foundation, Philippe Houzé, Chairman of the Management Board of the Galeries Lafayette group, and Guillaume Houzé, Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group, signed the first Chair dedicated to artistic and entrepreneurial creation.
ESCP Impact Papers
2026
Talk machine to me
2026, ESCP Impact Papers
Contribution on blogs and Social Networks
2026
Teaching in the age of generative AI: Why strategy matters more than tools
2026, Higher Education Policy Institute Blog, United Kingdom
Journal Article
2026
Teamwork in project management: Mapping AI as mediator with triangulated bibliometrics (1966–2023) under the IMOI framework
JOURNAL OF INNOVATION AND KNOWLEDGE, 2026, vol. Volume 12
Paper presented in a Conference
2026
Technology-Enhanced Metacognitive Assessment: Leveraging an Augmented Sociocognitive Conflict through an Audience Response System
in 12th EARLI SIG 16 “Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning” Biennial International Conference., 2026, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Journal Article
2026
The (Im)possible Circular Economy? Barriers and Best Practices in Resource-Intensive Industries
Forthcoming BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Conference Proceedings
2026
The ABC Framework for AI-Ready Universities
in AI in Higher Education Summit, ESCP, 2026, Paris, France
Journal Article
2026
The CEO-CFO Pay Gap: Executive Power and Celebrity at Play
MANAGEMENT DECISION, 2026, vol. 64(13), pp. 535-571
Debate; Point of view; Editorial,…
2026
The Changing Nature of Creativity in the Era of GenAI
2026, INFORMATION SYSTEMS FRONTIERS
Journal Article
2026
The dual managerialization of accounting standards: An analysis of the in situ implementation of IFRS 15 in the telecommunications sector
Forthcoming COMPTABILITE CONTROLE AUDIT / ACCOUNTING AUDITING CONTROL
ESCP Impact Papers
2026
The European AI health trap: Why innovation fails to scale
2026, ESCP Impact Papers