Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette Art Thinking

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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.

 

Guillaume Houzé, Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette

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

Sylvain Bureau, Scientific Director

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

Research and development

  • Scientific publications
  • Doctoral theses and final dissertations
  • Improbable Siesta: seminar bringing together researchers, artists, and experts in creation
Teaching

  • Spreading the Improbable method at ESCP and beyond
  • Designing initial training in Art Thinking
  • Training Art Thinking instructors
Events

  • 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...

Group photo at the inauguration of the Improbable chair

Article

When Art meets Entrepreneurship

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.

Display :
13049 publications

Journal Article

2016

BENYAYER, L. -D.

Relation client et nouveaux business models dans l’open source

QUESTION(S) DE MANAGEMENT, 2016, vol. n°14, pp. 63-73

Journal Article

2016

VERZAT, C., M. JORE, N. O'SHEA

Rendre les étudiants heureux et proactifs : la preuve par l’apprentissage autodirigé

ENTREPRENDRE ET INNOVER, 2016, vol. 29 (2), pp. 37-48

Paper presented in a Conference

2016

SAULPIC, O., P. ZARLOWSKI

Renforcer l'intégration et la structuration des activités d'enseignement et de recherche en gestion pour en développer l'impact : Réflexions à partir d'expériences de recherche appliquée en management de la santé

in Etats Généraux du Management, 2016, Toulouse, France

Guest Speaker in a Conference

2016

PINOT DE VILLECHENON, F.

Représentations et stratégies dans les relations Europe-Amérique latine. De l'affinité culturelle aux opportunités d'affaires

2016, IHEAL, Paris, France

Journal Article

2016

T. BRAUN

Reproduction of 'typical' gender roles in temporary organizations - No surprise for whom? The case of cooperative behaviours and

SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, 2016

Paper presented in a Conference

2016

SAULPIC, O., F. GIRAUD

Research based teaching in MC? Reflexions based on an experience

in Procednings of 3rd Workshop on the link between research and teaching in management accounting, 2016, Greenwich, United Kingdom

Journal Article

2016

FRANKLIN-JOHNSON, E., F. FIGGE, L. CANNING

Resource duration as a managerial indicator for Circular Economy performance

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION, 2016, vol. 133, pp. 589-598

Book

2016

LAASCH, O., R. N. CONAWAY

Responsible business

Greenleaf, 2016

Journal Article

2016

FUENTES MORALEDA, L., A. MUÑOZ

Responsible Tourism as an Instrument for Local Development: A case study to analyze the main motivations for tourists

CUADERNOS DE TURISMO, 2016

PhD Dissertation

2016

G. MOYSE

Résumés linguistiques de données numériques : interprétabilité et périodicité de séries

2016, Université Paris 6 - Pierre et Marie Curie