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

2016

SHANTZ, A., K. ALFES, L. AREVSHATIAN

HRM in healthcare: the role of work engagement

PERSONNEL REVIEW, 2016, vol. 45, Issue 2, pp. 274-295

Paper presented in a Conference

2016

ZILBERBERG, E.

Identifications imposées ou autodéterminées des apprenants et engagement en présentiel dans un Dispositif Hybride d'Evaluations d'une Audience Médiatisé par Ordinateur el.

in Proceeding of 3 ème édition, Colloque doctoral international de l'éducation et de la formation, 2016, Nantes, France

Paper presented in a Conference

2016

VOYER, B., F. BASSO, O. PETIT, K. LE GOFF, O. OUILLIER

Improving health communication by using the first-person perspective

in Annual Conference, 2016, Christchurch, New Zealand

Journal Article

2016

VERZAT, C., A. FAYOLLE, R. WAPSHOTT

In Quest of Legitimacy: The Theoretical and Methodological Foundations of Entrepreneurship Education Research

INTERNATIONAL SMALL BUSINESS JOURNAL, 2016, vol. 34, pp. 895-904

Conference Proceedings

2016

DESLANDES, G.

In the Shadow of others : The difficulty of Recognition in Leadership

in EGOS Research Conference, European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), 2016, Napoli, Italy

Paper presented in a Conference

2016

SAULPIC, O., E. BÉRARD, J.-L. DENIS, P. ZARLOWSKI

In the shadows of public sector reforms: The role of managerial tools in transforming the French healthcare system

in 32nd EGOS Colloquium, 2016, Naples, Italy

Studies and Reports commissioned by Companies and Research Agencies

2016

BUREAU, S., J. -F. ROYER, F. SEBAG

Industrialization of disruption: A case for Europe

Beyond Unicorns, Rapport Chaire Entrepreneuriat – EY, 2016

Chapter

2016

REIS, R., S., F. SALUM, H. TADEU

Innovation management reflexions: a Brazilian market perspective

in 创新管理的演变:国际背景下的发展趋势 (The evolution of innovation management: development trends in the international context)., A. Brem,. & E. Viardot Eds, Tsinghua University Press, 2016

Journal Article

2016

COBO, J. R., E. RODRIGUEZ-SEGURA, I. ORTIZ-MARCOS, L. BALLESTEROS-SANCHEZ

Innovation projects performance: Analyzing the impact of organizational characteristics

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 2016, vol. 69(4), pp. 1357-1360

Published Case Study

2016

VOYER, B.

Instructor presentation material Marca, Modelo De Negocio, Co-Creación, Comunidad: Qué Constituye El Verdadero Valor De Airbnb?

2016, European Case Clearing House