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

Other contribution

2026

HELD, V., C. ANDREOLI

Interactive-Panel-Discussion: “Co-designing pathways to impact: using the Theory of Change in academic-practitioner research”

2026, Impact Investing Days 2026

ESCP Impact Papers

2026

MERCADO, S.

Internationalization in an era of technological, societal, and geopolitical change: Towards a values-based approach to HE internationalization

2026, ESCP Impact Papers

Other contribution

2026

VOYER, B., G.

Interview on academics and living in New Zealand

2026, LE MONDE

Other contribution

2026

VOYER, B., G.

Interview on Fashion brands collaborating with F1.

2026, Sector.World

Other contribution

2026

VOYER, B., G.

Interview on shopping addiction and how consumers use shopping as coping mechanisms

2026, ELLE

Other contribution

2026

VOYER, B., G.

Interview on the psychology of subscription services

2026, THE TIMES

Other contribution

2026

SECKLER, C.

Interview: Richtig falsch machen

2026, Südtiroler Wirtschaftszeitung

Journal Article

2026

HAENLEIN, M., P. K. KANNAN, E. MULLER, R. WAHID

Introducing the special issue on influencer marketing with extension into synthetic word of mouth: How AI shapes the future of influencer marketing

JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF MARKETING SCIENCE, 2026

Journal Article

2026

JACOB, F., H., F. RATTALINO

Karriere à la francaise

PERSONALWIRTSCHAFT, 2026, vol. 03/04 2026, pp. 58-59

Paper presented in a Conference

2026

PAUNOVA, M., D. PÉREZ ARECHAEDERRA

Knowledge Sharing in Healthcare across Levels: Nurses, their Leaders and Teams

in 86th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, 2026, Philadephia, United States