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 :
13052 publications

Chapter

2012

SCAGNELLI, S. D.

The effect of adopting cost or fair value measurements on financial statements: The case of IAS 40 - Investment property.

in Advances in Business and Management., Nelson W.D. Ed., New York: Nova Science., 2012

Paper presented in a Conference

2012

KASTANAKIS, M., B. VOYER

The Effect Of Culture On Perception: A Critical Review And Research Agenda For Consumer Research

in Proceedings of the Global Marketing Conference, 2012, Seoul

Journal Article

2012

FERNÁNDEZ DE ARROYABE, J. C., N. ARRANZ

The Effect of Formal Contracts, Relational Norms and Trust on Performance of Joint R&D Projects

BRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, 2012

Journal Article

2012

MELNYK, V., E. VAN HERPEN, A. FISCHER, H. VAN TRIJP

The effect of regulatory focus on the influence of injunctive and descriptive social norms

ADVANCES IN CONSUMER RESEARCH, 2012, vol. 39, pp. 567-568

Radio Talk

2012

TAFUR, J.

The Entrepreneurial Odyssey

2012, Radio Utopía (102.4 FM)

Journal Article

2012

CREEL, J., P. HUBERT, F. SARACENO

The European Fiscal Compact: a counterfactual assessment

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC INTEGRATION (JEI), December 2012, vol. Vol. 27, Issue 4, pp. pp. 537-563 27 p.

Journal Article

2012

MACE, S.

The Impact and Determinants of Nine-Ending Pricing in Grocery Retailing

JOURNAL OF RETAILING, March 2012, vol. Vol. 88, Issue1, pp. pp. 115-130 16 p.

Paper presented in a Conference

2012

LAMOURI, S., V. CARBONE, A. A. LEMIEUX, A. FERCOQ

The impact of lean-green management on firm's performance- A literature review

in Proceedings of the 21st Annual IPSERA Conference, International Purchasing and Supply Education and Research Association, 2012, Napoli

Journal Article

2012

KOSCHAT, M.

The Impact of Movie Reviews on Box Office: Media Portfolios and the Intermediation of Genre

JOURNAL OF MEDIA ECONOMICS, 2012

Conference Proceedings

2012

JACOB, F., R. WILKEN, T. AYKAC, N. PRIME

The Impact of Power Asymmetry on Strategies and Outcomes in Intercultural Business Negotiations

in Proceedings of the INFORMS Marketing Science Conference, INFORMS Marketing Science Conference, 2012, Boston, United States