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 :
13042 publications

Journal Article

2018

FRIEDRICH, J., M. THIEMANN, M. BIRK

Much Ado About Nothing? Macro-Prudential Ideas and the Post-Crisis Regulation of Shadow Banking

KÖLNER ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SOZIOLOGIE UND SOZIALPSYCHOLOGIE, 2018

Journal Article

2018

NITSCHE, B., C. , F. DURACH

Much discussed, little conceptualized: supply chain volatility

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION AND LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT, 2018, vol. 48(8), pp. 866-886

Journal Article

2018

RITZ, A., K. ALFES

Multi-Cultural Public Administration: Effects of Language Diversity and Dissimilarity on Public Employees’ Attachment toward Employment

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 2018, vol. 96(1), pp. pp. 84-103

Conference Proceedings

2018

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

Multicampus teaching of a multicultural student body: Exploring the ‘One size fits all’ learning experience

in Le management international: Atlas-AFMI 10 ans déjà, ATLAS-AFMI, 2018, Paris, France

Journal Article

2018

BICK, M., J. BÜHLER

Name it as you like it? Keeping pace with social media something

ELECTRONIC MARKETS, 2018, vol. 28 (4), pp. 509 - 522

Journal Article

2018

LUI, G., C. SHUM, M. GOEDEKE

Navigating the Residency Requirements of Foreign Earned Income Exclusion

TAXES, 2018, vol. Vol. 96, No. 6, pp. pp. 27-33, 48

Journal Article

2018

SCHMID, S., F. ALTFELD, T. DAUTH

Neuberufungen von DAX-30-Vorständen und -Aufsichtsräten: Wie reagiert der Aktienmarkt auf den Doktortitel von Topmanagern?

CORPORATE FINANCE BIZ, 2018, vol. 09-10, pp. 276-282

Chapter

2018

DESLANDES, G., G. MERCIER

Neuroscience, Ethical issues in

in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society., Robert W. Kolb Ed., Sage, pp. 2469-2471, 2018

Research Monograph (Working papers)

2018

FRIEDRICH, J., M. THIEMANN

New Governance Architecture for European Financial Markets? Towards a European Supervision of CCPs?

Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, 2018

Paper presented in a Conference

2018

BALAZS, K.

No sex, no money, no happiness, just death

in ESMT Coaching Colloquium, 2018, Berlin, Germany