Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette Art Thinking

See this page in
French[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.

 

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

Paper presented in a Conference

2004

COEURDEROY, R., E. BROUSSEAU

Supervision Clauses in Technology Licensing Agreements: the Governance of Knowledge Transfers

in Proceedings of the Academy of Management Conference, 2004, New Orleans, United States

Habilitation Dissertation

2004

GETZ, I.

Systèmes de gestion et processus créatif

Université Paris 2 - Panthéon-Assas, 2004

Chapter

2004

MACE, S., P. DASSONVILLE, E. A. ET ALII

Techniques quantitatives de gestion

in Manuel de gestion., DAYAN A. (ed.), AUF / Ellipses, 2004

Journal Article

2004

MORAND, P., M. FOUQUIN

Textile : chronique d'une tempête annoncée

ECHOS (LES), December 2004

Journal Article

2004

ALTMAN, Y., F. BOURNOIS

The 'coconut tree' model of careers: the case of French academia

JOURNAL OF VOCATIONAL BEHAVIOR, April 2004, pp. pp 320-328 9 p

Conference Proceedings

2004

COLLA, E.

The basis of retailers’ power : The situation in France and in United Kingdom

in 8° International Conference on Teaching and Research Issues in Commercial Distribution, London College of Communication. University of Arts, 2004, Londres, United Kingdom

Journal Article

2004

MACE, S., S. A. NESLIN

The Determinants of Pre-and Post-Promotion Dips in Sales of Frequently Purchased Goods

JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH, August 2004, pp. pp 339-350 12 p

Paper presented in a Conference

2004

DURISIN, B., D. MATERIA

The Generalized Bass Model: An Empirical Application to Take-Off of Durable Goods in Italy

in Proceedings of the INFORMS Marketing Science Conference, Erasmus Universiteit, 2004, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Research Monograph (Working papers)

2004

SCHMID, S., K. KRETSCHMER

The German Corporate Governance System and the German "Mitbestimmung": An Overview

ESCP-EAP Working Paper, no. No. 8, 2004

PhD Dissertation

2004

TRAN, V.

The influence of emotions on decision-making processes in management teams

2004, Université de Genève, France