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

Journal Article

2000

BOUILLOUD, J.-P.

Sciences sociales et demande sociale. Pour une méthodologie de la réception

SCIENCES DE LA SOCIETE, 2000, pp. pp 167-178 12 p

Paper presented in a Conference

2000

APICELLA, C.

Sidon à l’époque hellénistique, quelques problèmes méconnus

in Actes du colloque international sur la Syrie hellénistique, 2000, Tours, France

Chapter

2000

GUPTA, J., A. K. JAIN

Solution for: Privatization through International Project Financing: The Case of Oil & Gas Industry in India

in Fallstudien zum Internationalen Management. Grundlagen - Praxiserfahrungen - Perspektiven - Solutions., ZENTES J., SWOBODA B. (eds), Gabler, pp. pp 401-407 7 p, 2000

Published Case Study

2000

LAPOULE, P.

Start Again ! Les nouvelles technologies au service de la tradition.

2000, CCMP, Paris, France

Paper presented in a Conference

2000

QUAGLIA, R.

Strategic Opportunities in Broadband for Banks and Insurers

in Proceedings of Next generation technologies in Financial Services, Beyond Online Conference, 2000, London

Textbook

2000

SCHOLES, K., F. FRERY, G. JOHNSON

Stratégique

2000, Publi-Union, Paris, France

Habilitation Dissertation

2000

MENDOZA, C.

Synthèse de recherche

Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, pp. 113 p., 2000

Chapter

2000

HAHN, C.

Teaching Mathematics to Shop-assistant Apprentices: exploring Content and Didactical Situations

in Education for Mathematics in the Workplace., BESSOT A., RIDGEWAY J. (eds), Kluwer Academic, pp. pp 159-166 8 p, 2000

Paper presented in a Conference

2000

CARBONE, V.

The analysis of training needs in the Maritime Industry

in Actes de la IAME World Conference: Maritime Economics ' The interaction of Theory and Practice, 2000, Naples

Research Monograph (Working papers)

2000

MACE, S., S. A. NESLIN

The Determinants of Promotion-Induced Stockpiling and Deceleration

Working Paper, no. n°99-133, 2000