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 :
13040 publications

Journal Article

2020

BANCEL, F., D. GLAVAS

Why do firms issue green bonds

BANKERS MARKETS AND INVESTORS, 2020, vol. 60 (1), pp. 51-56

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2020

BUCHNER, A., S. AMINI, C. X. CAI, A. MOHAMED

Why do firms manage their stock price levels?

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL MARKETS, INSTITUTIONS AND MONEY, 2020, vol. 67, pp. 101220

Published Case Study

2020

KUPP, M., J. WEINMANN, H. -R. LANGE

Wild herbs grow tall – mastering structural change in Lusatia

2020, Harvard Business Publishing

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2020

JACOB, F., S. SCHAETZLE

Will a supplier's origin make a difference to its business customers?

INDUSTRIAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT, 2020, vol. 87, pp. 196-207

ESCP Impact Papers

2020

COBO, J. R.

Will future learning and teaching be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic?

2020, ESCP Impact Papers

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2020

ZHANG, L. E., P. AHONEN, A. BLOMBERG, K. DOERR, K. EINOLA , A. ELKINA, G. GAO, J. HAMBLETON, J. HELIN, A. HUOPALAINEN, B. F. JOHANNSEN, J. JOHANSSON, P. JÄÄSKELÄINEN, A. -L. KAASILA‐PAKANEN, A. KIVINEN, E. MANDALAKI, S. MERILÄINEN, A. PULLEN, T. SALMELA, S. SATAMA, J. TIENARI, A. WICKSTRÖM

Writing Resistance Together

GENDER, WORK AND ORGANIZATION, 2020, vol. 27 (4), pp. 447-470

Contribution on blogs and Social Networks

2020

CASANUEVA, C.

¿Porqué la satisfacción en el trabajo es fundamental para OpSeeker?

2020, www.opseeker.com, Spain

ESCP Impact Papers

2020

DURISIN, B.

“The world is changing so rapidly I have little time to be astonished.” Some reflections on Leadership in High-Tech for addressing tectonic shifts and fault lines in our Society

2020, ESCP Impact Papers

Journal Article

2019

WIEGMANN, L., J. WEBER, U. SCHÄFFER

"Deutsche" Kostenrechnung - acht Empfehlungen zur Gestaltung ihrer Veränderung

DER BETRIEB, 2019, vol. 72(11), pp. 557-563

Book

2019

MONTEIL, P. -O.

- Politique, économie et société

Seuil, 2019