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 :
13028 publications

Journal Article

2026

CHO, C. H., E. PIMENTEL, J. BERNARD, A. GHIO, L. KEDDIE, J. BOTHELLO

Engaging With Practitioners: The Case of the Diversity Event

ACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVES, 2026, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 379-393

Journal Article

2026

GARCIA QUEVEDO, D., A. GLASER, C. VERZAT

Enhancing Theorization Using Artificial Intelligence: Leveraging Large Language Models for Qualitative Analysis of Online Data

ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH METHODS, 2026, vol. 29 (1), pp. 92–112

Journal Article

2026

MEZIANI, N., V. SERGI, A. LANGLEY, J. BASQUE

Enrolling deceased founders in times of change or discontinuity: The evocative powers and perils of presentification

ORGANIZATION STUDIES, 2026, vol. 47 (4), pp. 549–588

Journal Article

2026

IVANOVA, S., F. FOSSEN

Entrepreneurial intention and action in response to obesity: the roles of health and psychosocial experience

Forthcoming SMALL BUSINESS ECONOMICS

Journal Article

2026

QUAGLIA, R., A. RIAZ, S. UR REHMAN, G. GIOVANDO

Entrepreneurial orientation in the digital world: orchestrating innovation, ESG, and sustainability

INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, 2026, vol. 22(1), pp. 40

Journal Article

2026

MROZEWSKI, M., J., W. DUDZIAK, R. MAUER

Entrepreneurial traits as antecedents of firm-level bricolage: the roles of endogenous and exogenous uncertainty

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 2026, vol. 215

Journal Article

2026

BATTAGLIA, D., A. COLOMBELLI, A. PANELLI, E. PAOLUCCI, E. RAGUSEO

Entrepreneurs-as-Scientists and entrepreneurial team formation strategies: A randomized control trial experiment

RESEARCH POLICY, 2026, vol. 55 (4), pp. 1-17

Journal Article

2026

SAVIN, I., A. MOLINA-GARZÓN, L. MOROS, S. I. IZQUIERDO-TORT, E. CORBERA

Environmental motivations in an ongoing PES program in the Colombian Amazon

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES, 2026

Review of a book; an article; a research

2026

LAASCH, O., V. , M. LIMA

Epistemologizing and vibing with Cozza and Gherardi

2026, MANAGEMENT LEARNING

Journal Article

2026

LUP, D., H. KOPELMAN, O. LUP

Equality in Practice: How Country-Level Leave Entitlements Shape Women’s Career Development Opportunities in Organizations

Forthcoming JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ETHICS