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

2019

MAGNANI, F., V. CARBONE, V. MOATTI

The human dimension of lean: a literature review

SUPPLY CHAIN FORUM: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, 2019, vol. 20 (2), pp. 132-144

Journal Article

2019

SAUNDERS, L., W. TATE, G. , A. ZSIDISIN, J. MIEMCZYK

The Influence of Network Exchange Brokers on Sustainable Initiatives in Organizational Networks

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ETHICS, 2019, vol. Volume 154, Issue 3, pp. 849–868

Journal Article

2019

BOUILLOUD, J. -P., G. DESLANDES, M. MERCIER

The Leader as Chief Truth Officer

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ETHICS, 2019, vol. 157(1), pp. 1-14

Journal Article

2019

MELNYK, V., E. VAN HERPEN, S. JAK, H. VAN TRIJP

The mechanism of the social norms' influence on consumer decision making: A meta-analysis

ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR PSYCHOLOGIE - JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY, 2019, vol. 227(1), pp. 4-17

Chapter

2019

KASSIS HENDERSON, J., L. COHEN

The Paradoxical Consequences of 'the Perfect Accent'!

in Cases in Critical Cross-Cultural Management: An Intersectional Approach to Culture., J.Mahadevan, H.Primecz and L.Romani (eds), Routledge / Taylor and Francis, pp. 12-21, 2019

Journal Article

2019

HOWARD, M., P. HOPKINSON, J. MIEMCZYK

The regenerative supply chain: a framework for developing circular economy indicators

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRODUCTION RESEARCH, 2019, vol. 57:23, pp. 7300-7318

Chapter

2019

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

The Relevance of Climate Change Related Risks on Corporate Financial and Non-Financial Disclosure in Italian Listed Companies

in The Future of Risk Management, Vol. I., De Vincentiis P., Culasso F., Cerrato S. (eds), Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 77-107, 2019

Journal Article

2019

RUHNKE, K., M. SCHMIDT

The Resolution of Audit-Detected Misstatements

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, 2019, vol. 20 (1), pp. 41–62

Chapter

2019

FROESE, T., F. LÜDEKE-FREUND

The role of business models for sustainable consumption

in A Research Agenda for Sustainable Consumption Governance., Oksana Mont Ed., Edward Elgar, 2019

Paper presented in a Conference

2019

DI GIULI, A., A. PETIT-ROMEC

The Role of The Media in Corporate Governance: Evidence From Shareholder Proposals

in 27 Finance Forum, July 2019, Madrid., 2019, Madrid, Spain