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

Textbook

2001

MERCADO, S., R. WELFORD, K. PRESCOTT

European Business

2001, Pearson Education, Harlow

Journal Article

2001

BANCEL, F., U. R. MITTOO

European managerial perceptions of the net benefits of foreign stock listing

EUROPEAN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, 2001, pp. pp 213-236 24 p

Paper presented in a Conference

2001

COLLIN, B., M. BESSON

Expérience en entreprise et attitude en situation de formation

in Congrès international, 2001, Lille, France

Journal Article

2001

LADO COUSTE, N., A. MAYDEU-OLIVARES, ALBERT

Exploring the link between Market Orientation and Innovation in the European and U.S. Insurance Markets

INTERNATIONAL MARKETING REVIEW, 2001, vol. Vol.18, Issue 2, pp. pp.130-144 15p.

Research Monograph (Working papers)

2001

SCHMIDT-BUCHHOLZ, A., S. SCHMID, M. KUTSCHKER

Extending Traditional Explanations of International Business Activities: Network Externalities and Economies of Scale - A Study on German Software and Internet Start-ups

Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt Working Paper, no. No. 153, 2001

Chapter

2001

GABILLIET, P.

Fidéliser une clientèle de professionnels

in Encyclopédie Vente et Distribution., BLOCH A., MACQUIN A. (eds), ECONOMICA, pp. pp 377-395 19 p, 2001

Edited Book / Textbook

2001

MERTON, R. C., C. THIBIERGE, Z. BODIE

Finance

Village mondial, Paris, France, 2001

Paper presented in a Conference

2001

CARBONE, V., H. LEGGATE

Financial Characteristics of the Shipping Industry: Challenging the Preconceptions

in Proceedings of IAME World Conference, 2001, Hong Kong

Paper presented in a Conference

2001

BADOT, O.

Franchise commerciale et succursalisme agile : analyse comparée de deux formes organisationnelles de la distribution hybridant marché et hierarchie

in Actes du Colloque `Histoire, Gestion, Organisation', Université de Toulouse 1, ESUG, 2001, Toulouse, France

Paper presented in a Conference

2001

GEUSER, F. D., Y.-M. ABRAHAM

From anxiety to method : how fear turns management tools into anti-management tools

in Proceedings of 17th EGOS Colloquium `The Odyssey of Organizing', 2001, Lyon, France