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

Paper presented in a Conference

2019

PINA, G.

Golden Fetters and the Causal Effects of Countercyclical Interest Rates

in Theories and Methods in Macroeconomics, 2019, Nuremberg, Germany

Conference Proceedings

2019

DESLANDES, G.

Governance by Numbers and Organization Studies

in The Egos and Organization Studies Kyoto Workshop, EGOS Colloquium, 2019, Kyoto, Japan

Chapter

2019

MIMOUN, L., A. GRUEN

Guest, friend or colleague? Unpacking relationship norms in collaborative workplaces

in Handbook of the Sharing Economy., Russell W. Belk, Giana M. Eckhardt and Fleura Bardhi Eds, Edward Elgar, 2019

Journal Article

2019

RICHARD, E., E. MOLL VAN CHARANTE, M. HOEVENAAR-BLOM, N. COLEY, M. BARBERA, A. VAN DE GROEP, Y. MEILLER, F. MANGIALASCHE, C. BEISHUIZEN, S. JONGSTRA, T. VAN MIDDELAAR, L. VAN WANROOIJ, T. NGANDU, J. GUILLEMONT, S. ANDRIEU, C. BRAYNE, M. KIVIPELTO, H. SOININEN, W. VAN GOOL

Healthy ageing through internet counselling in the elderly (HATICE): a multinational, randomised controlled trial

THE LANCET DIGITAL HEALTH, 2019, vol. Volume 1, issue 8, pp. 424-434

Journal Article

2019

TRAEGER, C., K. ALFES

High-performance human resource practices and volunteer engagement: The role of empowerment and organizational identification. In: Voluntas. International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations

VOLUNTAS, 2019, vol. 30(5), pp. 1022–1035

Journal Article

2019

MIMOUN, L., A. GRUEN

Homeyness and Domesticity in Work-Related Marketplace Experiences

ADVANCES IN CONSUMER RESEARCH, 2019, vol. 47, pp. 984

Journal Article

2019

LAROCHE, H., V. STEYER, C. THERON

How could you be so gullible? Scams and over-trust in organizations

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ETHICS, 2019, vol. 160/3, pp. 641-656

Conference Proceedings

2019

CANOVI, M., F. RATTALINO, L. CIRAVEGNA

How Family Owners’ Social and Personal Identities shape Corporate Entrepreneurship in Family Firms

in Understanding the Inclusive Organization, Academy of Management (AOM), 2019, Boston, United States

Journal Article

2019

GONZALEZ JIMENEZ, H., F. FASTOSO, K. FUKUKAWA

How Independence and Interdependence Moderate the Self-Congruity Effect on Brand Attitude: A Study of East and West

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 2019, vol. 103, pp. 293-300

Journal Article

2019

CAUSSAT, P., N. PRIME, R. WILKEN

How Multinational Banks in India Gain Legitimacy: Organisational Practices and Resources Required for Implementation

MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL REVIEW, 2019, vol. 59(4), pp. 561-591