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

2001

COLLA, E.

Internationalisation des groupes de la distribution

in Encyclopédie Vente et Distribution., Alain Bloch et Anne Maquin Ed., ECONOMICA, pp. 65-79, 2001

Journal Article

2001

LE CORRE, J. -Y.

Internet opens the doors of Knowledge Management to internal auditors

AUDIT REVUE FRANCAISE DE L'AUDIT INTERNE, 2001

Journal Article

2001

MOUSSU, C.

Introduction en bourse: les controverses

LES ECHOS - L'ART DU MANAGEMENT, 2001

Paper presented in a Conference

2001

ALEXANDRE-BAILLY, F.

Is it Possible to Foster Personal Thinking with a Firm?

in Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Management and Organization Cognition "Thinking and Acting in/on Organizations", EIASM, ESCP-EAP, 2001, Paris, France

Journal Article

2001

COEURDEROY, R.

Is There a Size Gap in Corporate Leverage? A European Comparison

JAHRBUCHER FUR NATIONALOKONOMIE UND STATISTIK, 2001, vol. Vol. 221, Issue 5-6, pp. pp. 672-688 17 p.

Book

2001

KUPP, M.

Kooperationen zwischen Umweltschutzorganisationen und Unternehmen

Josef Eul Verlag, Lohmar, Germany, 2001

Journal Article

2001

GOUTHIER, M., S. SCHMID

Kunden und Kundenbeziehungen als Ressourcen von Dienstleistungsunternehmungen: Eine Analyse aus der Perspektive der ressourcenbasierten Ansätze des Strategischen Managements

BETRIEBSWIRTSCHAFT (DIE), 2001, vol. Vol. 61, No. 2, pp. pp. 223-239

Chapter

2001

DURISIN, B.

L'analisi della concorrenza nel nuovo contesto competitivo

in La Gestione della Virtualità: Dalla catena del valore alla rete virtuale del valore., VICARI S. (ed), Egea, pp. pp. 125-173 49 p., 2001

Paper presented in a Conference

2001

CARBONE, V.

L'analyse des profils professionnels dans la logistique et les transports : preuves empiriques

in Actes de Formation dans les Transports : la contribution du Projet FIT, 2001, Naples

Chapter

2001

DURISIN, B.

L'appropriazione del valore nella rete: Competere per il profitto in contesti virtuali

in Management ed economia della Virtualità: Dalla catena del valore alla rete virtuale del valore., VICARI S. (ed), Egea, pp. pp. 205-225 21 p., 2001