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 :
13042 publications

Journal Article

2021

BADOT, O., J. -B. WELTE, P. HETZEL

The narrative strategies of retail spaces: a semio-ethnographic approach

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MARKETING, 2021, vol. 55 (7), pp. 2012-2036

Journal Article

2021

FRACCARO, A., S. MACE, B. PARGUEL

The not-so-odd couple: Odd pricing in a luxury context

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 2021, vol. Volume 136, pp. 356-365

Journal Article

2021

JOHNSON, D., J. EXL, S. GEISENDORF

The Potential of Stormwater Management in Addressing the Urban Heat Island Effect: An Economic Valuation

SUSTAINABILITY, 2021, vol. 13, 8685, pp. 19

Conference Proceedings

2021

SECKLER, C., R. MAUER, J. VOM BROCKE, H. BERGLUND, G. ROMME, M. TALMAR, O. TERZIDIS

The Promise of Design Science as a Research Approach: Getting Inspired and Learning from Each Other (PDW)

in 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Academy of Management (AOM), 2021, Virtual Edition, United States

Conference Proceedings

2021

SECKLER, C., R. MAUER, H. BERGLUND, G. ROMME, J. VOM BROCKE

The Promise of Design Science as a Research Approach: Sharing Ideas and Building Community (Pre-conference session)

in Babson College, USA - conference hosted online, Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC), 2021, Virtual Edition, United States

Conference Proceedings

2021

GRAF-VLACHY, L.

The Readability of Information Systems Research over Three Decades: An Analysis of the Senior Scholars’ Basket of Journals from 1990 to 2020

in Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, 2021, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Journal Article

2021

ALFES, K., M. VELD, N. FÜRSTENBERG

The relationship between perceived high‐ performance work systems, combinations of human resource well‐being and human resource performance attributions and engagement

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, 2021, vol. 31 (3), pp. 729-752

Other contribution

2021

PETRAKAKI, D., P. CHAMAKIOTIS

The role of digital health platforms in re-skilling healthcare professionals in developing countries: The case of MedicineAfrica

2021, Policy@Sussex, United Kingdom

Journal Article

2021

BATTAGLIA, D., E. PAOLUCCI, E. UGHETTO

The role of Proof-of-Concept programs in mitigating the effect of inhibitors on the commercialization of research-based inventions.

RESEARCH POLICY, 2021, vol. 50 (6), 104268

Journal Article

2021

BUTZ, H., M. , J. MROZEWSKI

The Selection Process and Criteria of Impact Accelerators. An Exploratory Study

SUSTAINABILITY, 2021, vol. 13(12)