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

Book

2001

B. COLLIN, I. W. KING, P. RAIMOND

Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Management and Organization Cognition "Thinking and Acting in/on Organizations", 2001, May 30-June 1st

ESCP-EAP, Paris, France, 2001

Journal Article

2001

GETZ, I., T. I. LUBART

Psychologie, économie et créativité : Exploration de leurs interactions

PSYCHOLOGIE FRANCAISE, 2001, vol. vol. 46, pp. pp 365-378 14 p

Journal Article

2001

PLIHON, D., J.-P. PONSSARD, P. ZARLOWSKI

Quel scénario pour le gouvernement d'entreprise ?

REVUE D'ECONOMIE FINANCIERE, 2001, vol. N° 63, vol. 3, pp. 35-51

Journal Article

2001

BAKER, C. R., A. MIKOL, R. QUICK

Regulation of the Statutory Auditor in the European Union: A comparative survey of the United Kingdom, France and Germany

EUROPEAN ACCOUNTING REVIEW (THE), December 2001, pp. pp 763-786 24 p

Paper presented in a Conference

2001

DURISIN, B.

Rent appropriation in the New Competitive Landscape: Managing for Profitability in the Web of Relationships

in Proceedings of the 21st International Conference of the Strategic Management Society, 2001, San Francisco, United States

Conference Proceedings

2001

COLLA, E., M. DUPUIS

Research and managerial issues on global retail competition : Carrefour-Wal/Mart

in 11° International EAERCD Conference on Research in the Distributive Trades, University of Tilburg, 2001, Tillbourgh, Netherlands

Chapter

2001

ROYER, I., P. ZARLOWSKI

Research design

in Doing management research: a comprehensive guide., THIETART R.-A. (ed.), Sage, 2001

Journal Article

2001

GIL, C.

Retribuciones e Indemnizaciones : régimen Jurídico,fiscalidad y cotización

CINCO DIAS, 2001

Review of a book; an article; a research

2001

SCHMID, S.

Review of STONEHOUSE G., HAMILL J., CAMPBELL D., PURDIE T.: Global and Transnational Business: Strategy and Management, John Wiley, Chichester et al., 2000

2001, MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

Journal Article

2001

PAPE, U., K. SERFLING

Risikoadjustierte Eigenkapitalkosten öffentlicher Unternehmen

ZEITSCHRIFT FUR OFFENTLICHE UND GEMEINWIRTSCHAFTLICHE UNTERNEHMEN, 2001, pp. pp 308-325 18 p