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 :
13043 publications

Book

2013

RADICA, G.

Textes­ clés de Philosophie de la famille

Éditions Vrin, 2013

Journal Article

2013

THORPE, R., A. J. EVANS

The (quantity) theory of money and credit

REVIEW OF AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS (THE), December 2013, vol. Vol. 26, Issue 4, pp. pp. 463-481 18 p.

Journal Article

2013

WILKEN, R., N. PRIME, F. JACOB

The ambiguous role of cultural moderators in intercultural business negotiations

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS REVIEW, August 2013, vol. 22(4), pp. 736-753

Journal Article

2013

BALAZS, K., M. , F. R. KETS DE VRIES

The Art of Forgiveness

EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW, 2013, vol. Sept-oct 2013, pp. 13-16

Journal Article

2013

SOANE, E., A. SHANTZ, K. ALFES, C. TRUSS, C. REES, M. GATENBY

The Association of Meaningfulness, Well-Being, and Engagement with Absenteeism

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, 2013, vol. 52, Issue 3, pp. 441-456

Journal Article

2013

MEISSNER, P., H. ZÜLCH, D. DETZEN, M. WÜNSCH, T. WULF

The Benefits of Pre-Deal Purchasing Price Allocation for Acquisition Decisions: An Exploratory Analysis

PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES IN MANAGEMENT, 2013, vol. Vol. 11, issue 1, pp. pp. 59-68

Journal Article

2013

VOYER, B., B. SHENOY, B. MCINTOSH

The care dividend: learning from the past - Comment

BRITISH JOURNAL OF HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT, 2013, vol. Vol. 19, Issue 6, pp. pp. 262-263 2 p.

Journal Article

2013

SECINARO, S.

The Consolidated Financial Statement: Are Ipsas And National Accounting Standards Comparable? The Turin City Council Case Vol. 4 No. 13; October 2013

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE, 2013

Studies and Reports commissioned by Companies and Research Agencies

2013

LIVANIOS, A.

The Conundrum of the Southern Gas Corridor: What are the Risks for Europe and Azerbaijan?

2013

Paper presented in a Conference

2013

ALAHAKONE, R., K. ALFES, A. SHANTZ

The effect of corporate social responsibility perceptions on employees' intentions to stay

in Proceedings of the 16th congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP), 2013, Münster, Germany