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

Review of a book; an article; a research

2003

BOUILLOUD, J.-P.

Compte rendu de ENRIQUEZ E., HAROCHE C., La face cachée des sociétés démocratiques

2003, REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE PSYCHOSOCIOLOGIE ET DE GESTION DES COMPORTEMENTS ORGANISATIONNELS

Chapter

2003

BADOT, O.

Compte-rendu de l'ouvrage Alternatives Marketing par Véronique et Bernard Cova

in Sociétés, consommation et consommateurs., REMY E., GARABUAU-MOUSSAOUI I., DESJEUX D., FILSER M. (eds), L'Harmattan, pp. pp 147-147 1 p, 2003

Paper presented in a Conference

2003

CALABRETTA, G., B. DURISIN

Contextualizing organizational creativity and knowledge management: From stylistic identity to signifying identity in the fashion business

in « Leaders for the Digital Economy », Proceedings of the INFORMS Marketing Science Conference, 2003, College Park, United States

Published Case Study

2003

LAPOULE, P.

Cora stretche sa marque L'Âme du Terroir

2003, CCMP, Paris, France

Paper presented in a Conference

2003

MENDOZA, C., O. SAULPIC

Cost calculation or Cost Modeling: Rethinking the link between ABC and ABM

in Proceedings of the 26th Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association, 2003, Sevilla

Paper presented in a Conference

2003

MENDOZA, C., P.-L. BESCOS, E. CAUVIN, P. LANGEVIN

Criticism of budgeting: a contingent approach

in Proceedings of the 26th Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association, 2003, Sevilla

Paper presented in a Conference

2003

MENDOZA, C., P.-L. BESCOS, E. CAUVIN, P. LANGEVIN

Critiques du budget : une approche contingente

in Actes du 24e Congrès de l'Association Française de Comptabilité, 2003, Louvain-la-Neuve

Journal Article

2003

GOUTHIER, M., S. SCHMID

Customers and Customer Relationships in Service Firms: The Perspective of the Resource-Based View

MARKETING THEORY, 2003, vol. Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. pp. 119-143

Review of a book; an article; a research

2003

LAROCHE, H.

Dans le secret des comités de direction

2003, GERER ET COMPRENDRE

Chapter

2003

ARNAUD, G.

De la conflictualtié psychique comme inadéquation créatrice

in Conflit(s)., SABOULY M., CALLUET L. (eds), Presses de l'Université des Sciences Sociales de Toulouse, 2003