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 :
13040 publications

Journal Article

2019

BASSEN, A., K. GÖDKER, F. LÜDEKE-FREUND, J. OLL

Climate Information in Retail Investors’ Decision-Making: Evidence from a Choice Experiment

ORGANIZATION AND ENVIRONMENT, 2019, vol. 32 (1), pp. 62-82

Paper presented in a Conference

2019

DE GEUSER, F., A. -M. GUENETTE, V. CALVEZ

Clinique d’un enseignement critique en école de gestion : travail réel de la critique en enseignement

in Les écoles de gestion: objets de la critique mais aussi acteurs de la résistance et de la (leur) transformation?, 2019, Montreal, Canada

Debate; Point of view; Editorial,…

2019

SUCCI, C.

Coltivare l’intelligenza umana nell’era dell’intelligenza digitale

2019, HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ITALIA, Italy

Journal Article

2019

VERZAT, C., T. LIU

Comment faire coopérer une équipe pluridisciplinaire dans un projet entrepreneurial ?

ENTREPRENDRE ET INNOVER, 2019, vol. 42-43, pp. 72-87

Book

2019

BADOT, O., COLLECTIF

Commerce : la révolution numérique

Alternatives Economiques, 2019

Paper presented in a Conference

2019

DI GIULI, A., N. SEKERCI, E. KARMAZIENE

Common Ownership and Firm Dividend Policies

in EFMA Annual Meting, Ponta Delgada, 2019, Ponta Delgada, Portugal

Chapter

2019

VENUTI, F., P. DE BERNARDI, A. BERTELLO

Community-Oriented Motivations and Knowledge Sharing as Drivers of Success Within Food Assemblies

in Exploring Digital Ecosystems. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation., Lazazzara A., Ricciardi F., Za S. Eds, Springer, chap. 33, 2019

Journal Article

2019

MURAWSKI, M., J. BÜHLER, K. BLATZ, M. BICK

Comparing the required competencies of sales professionals servicing digital and physical channels of sale: a case study of a German children’s entertainment company

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS, 2019

Chapter

2019

PUCCIARELLI, F., A. KAPLAN

Competition in Higher Education

in Strategic Brand Management in Higher Education., Bang Nguyen, T C Melewar and Jane Hemsley-Brown Eds, Routledge, 2019

Textbook

2019

ALEXANDRE-BAILLY, F., D. BOURGEOIS, N. RAULET-CROSET, J. -P. GRUERE, C. ROLAND-LÉVY, P. SCHARNITZKY, P. STONE, V. TRAN

Comportements humains et management

2019, Pearson