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

2017

VOYER, B., K. DOVGIALO

Exploring the Role of Consumption Values and Self-Construal in the Purchase of (In)Conspicuous Luxury Goods and Shopping Preferences: a Questionnaire Study

ADVANCES IN CONSUMER RESEARCH, 2017, vol. Vol. 45

Journal Article

2017

STRAUSS-KAHN, V., C. CARRÈRE

Export survival and the dynamics of experience

REVIEW OF WORLD ECONOMICS, 2017, vol. 153 (2), pp. 271-300

Journal Article

2017

POELL, R., F., M. NUIJTEN, K. ALFES

Extracurricular activities of Dutch University students and their effect on employment opportunities as perceived by both students and organizations

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SELECTION AND ASSESSMENT, 2017, vol. Vol. 25, Issue 4, pp. pp. 360-370

Debate; Point of view; Editorial,…

2017

MEILLER, Y., F. CHABBERT

Faire communiquer les machines ? Commençons par les humains !

2017, WE THE TALENT, France

Journal Article

2017

LWANGO, A., R. COEURDEROY, G. GIMENEZ-ROCHE

Family influence and SME performance under conditions of firm size and age

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SMALL BUSINESS, 2017, vol. Vol. 24, Issue 3

Paper presented in a Conference

2017

BITBOL-SABA, N., C. DAMBRIN

Femininity and the gendered body of female auditors in client interaction situations

in Critical Perspectives on Accounting conference, 2017, Quebec city, Canada

Journal Article

2017

FERNÁNDEZ DE CORDOBA, G.

Fiscal Deficits and Defaults

REVIEW OF ECONOMIC DYNAMICS, 2017

Published Case Study

2017

THOMAS, P., M. BOUHOUT EL ALAMI

FNAC - Darty

2017, Centrale de Cas et de Médias Pédagogiques, France

Conference Proceedings

2017

COLLA, E., C. DE GERY, L. LEMMET, M. DEPARIS, M. SHULTZ, M. E. RUIZ-MOLINA

Franchisee autonomy: a key to a successful franchising?

in EAERCD Conference, Dublin Institute of Technology, 2017, Dublin, Ireland

Journal Article

2017

TROEGE, M., R. AMIR, J. , Y. JIN

Free Trade versus Autarky under Asymmetric Cournot Oligopoly

REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS, 2017, pp. 1-20