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

2018

CHAMAKIOTIS, P., A. POULYMENAKOU

Refugees on-the-go: Virtuality for resilience in a hybrid setting

in Organizing for Resilience: Scholarship in Unsettled Times, 2018, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Paper presented in a Conference

2018

CHASTENET DE GERY, C., A. GLASER, E. M. LAVIOLETTE

Regards croisés sur les pratiques d’accompagnement entrepreneurial

in Regards croisés sur les pratiques d’accompagnement entrepreneurial, 2018, Montpellier, France

Journal Article

2018

FISCHER, D., R. MAUER, M. BRETTEL

Regulatory Focus Theory and Sustainable Entrepreneurship

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOUR AND RESEARCH, 2018, vol. 24(2), pp. pp. 408-428

Journal Article

2018

BAVA, F., M. GROMIS DI TRANA, D. BUSSO, P. PISONI

Related parties disclosure: Is a risk-based approach more effective?

FINANCIAL REPORTING, 2018

Edited Book / Textbook

2018

J. CREEL, E. LAURENT , J. LE CACHEUX

Report on the State of the European Union Volume 5

Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Chapter

2018

HAHN, C., A. BAKKER, D. PRATT, S. KAZAK

Research on Probability and statistics. Trends and directions

in Developing research in mathematics education. 20 years of communication, cooperation and collaboration in Europe., T. Dreyfus, M. Artigue, D. Potari, S. Prediger, K. Ruthven Eds, Routledge, pp. 46-59, 2018

Journal Article

2018

HOANG, C., K. KNOFERLE, L. WARLOP

Resolving Humorous Incongruity in Advertising Facilitates Impressions of Firm Competence

Advances in Consumer Research, 2018, vol. 46, pp. 594-595

Paper presented in a Conference

2018

HOANG, C., K. KNOFERLE, L. WARLOP

Resolving Humorous Incongruity in Advertising Facilitates Impressions of Firm Competence

in European Marketing Academy Conference 2018, 2018, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Paper presented in a Conference

2018

HOANG, C., K. KNOFERLE, L. WARLOP

Resolving Humorous Incongruity in Advertising Facilitates Impressions of Firm Competence

in Association for Consumer Research – North American Conference 2018, 2018, Dallas, United States

Chapter

2018

COLLA, E.

Risks, Strategic Options and Prospects for Commercial Distribution Faced with the Challenges of Sustainable Development

in Food Retailing and Sustainable Development., Laure Lavorata and Leigh Sparks Ed., Emerald Group Publishing Limited, chap. 9, pp. 155-169, 2018