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

2015

PRANGE, C., T. ENG, J. LI

Collaborative New Product Alliances. A Review of the Literature and Research Perspectives.

STRATEGIC CHANGE, 2015

Paper presented in a Conference

2015

BADOT, O.

Comment créer l'envie du commerce demain ?

in Actes de la Conférence prononcée dans le cadre du Colloque des Arts de la table, 2015, Orléans, France

Journal Article

2015

FRÉRY, F.

Comment le numérique est en train de révolutionner l'organisation du travail

LA TRIBUNE, 2015

Paper presented in a Conference

2015

LAMY, E.

Comment pérenniser l'action de l'entrepreneuriat social ? Diagnostic et éléments de réponse

in Entrepreneuriat Responsable : Pratiques et enjeux théoriques, 2015, Nantes, France

Review of a book; an article; a research

2015

LEMMET, L.

Commentaire sur l'article de David Martin « L'indignation citoyenne contre la loi hypothécaire en Espagne : complémentarités entre éthiques de la justice et de la sollicitude »

2015, ETHIQUE ET ECONOMIQUE

Journal Article

2015

COLLA, E.

Commentaire sur l’article de Clotilde Champeyrache : ‘L’entreprises légale mafieuse : efficience ou éthique ?’ 

ETHIQUE ET ECONOMIQUE, 2015, vol. 12, 1, pp. 63-70

Studies and Reports commissioned by Companies and Research Agencies

2015

PICARD, T.

Commerce extérieur et implantations de firmes multinationales : des profils différents selon les pays

2015

Journal Article

2015

ALFES, K., A. SHANTZ, T. SAKSIDA

Committed to whom ? Unravelling how volunteers ? perceived impact on beneficiaries influences turnover intentions and volunteer performance

VOLUNTAS, 2015, vol. 26, Issue 6, pp. 2479-2499

Book

2015

CISI, M.

Companies' formalized relationships: a study of the effectiveness of italian business Network contracts

Il Mulino, 2015

Chapter

2015

FESTING, M., C. TORNIKOSKI, V. SUUTARI

Compensation package of international assignees

in The Routledge Companion to Internation Human Resource Management., Collings, D., Wood, G., Caligiuri, P. Eds, New York and London: Routledge, pp. 289-307, 2015