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

2020

MIMOUN, L., A. GRUEN

Consumer Experience of Working from Third Places

ADVANCES IN CONSUMER RESEARCH, 2020, vol. 48, pp. 1196

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2020

MAGGIONI, I.

Consumer-Retailer Identification Enhancing Consumer Well-Being

in Handbook of Research on Retailing Techniques for Optimal Consumer Engagement and Experiences., F. Musso, & E. Druica Eds, IGI Global, 2020

Habilitation Dissertation

2020

KAHALE, N.

Contributions à l’ évaluation robuste des dérivés financiers et à la simulation Monte-Carlo

Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2020

Chapter

2020

COLLA, E.

Coopératives de distribution : le retour des utopies?

in Utopies et consommation., Olivier Bardot et Philippe Moati Ed., EMS Editions, pp. 228, 2020

Journal Article

2020

MANZHYNSKI, S., F. FIGGE

Coopetition for sustainability: Between organizational benefit and societal good

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, 2020, vol. 29 (3), pp. 827-837

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2020

HOTHO, J., D. MINBAEVA, M. MURATBEKOVA-TOURON, L. RABBIOSI

Coping with Favoritism in Recruitment and Selection: A Communal Perspective

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ETHICS, 2020, vol. 165 (4), pp. 659–679

ESCP Impact Papers

2020

KHAROUBI-RAKOTOMALALA, C., T. DOLLE

Coronavirus and financial markets: Uncertainties and lessons from an unprecedented crisis

2020, ESCP Impact Papers

Debate; Point of view; Editorial,…

2020

GETZ, I., L. MARBACHER

Coronavirus: Businesses must seize the chance to be altruistic

2020, THE CITY JOURNAL

Journal Article

2020

CIRAVEGNA, L., L. KANO, F. RATTALINO, A. VERBEKE

Corporate Diplomacy and Family Firm Longevity

ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, 2020, vol. 44(1), pp. 109-133

Paper presented in a Conference

2020

BEYNEIX, I., E. LAMY

Corporate epistemic responsibility and section 230 CDA

in 27th Annual International Vincentian Business Ethics conference (IVBEC 2020), 2020, Niagara, United States