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

Journal Article

2013

ULRICH, I., E. TISSIER-DESBORDES

The relevance of multifactorial gender and its measure in marketing

RAM - RECHERCHE ET APPLICATIONS EN MARKETING, 2013, vol. Vol. 28, n° 2, pp. pp. 86-115 30 p.

Conference Proceedings

2013

MACÍAS, M., M. ANNISETTE

The Rhetorical Use of Accounting: The Role of Accounting in Emancipation

in The 7th Accounting History International Conference, Accounting History International Conference, 2013, Seville, Spain

Paper presented in a Conference

2013

TAILLARD, M., B. VOYER, V. GLAVEANU

The Role of Consumer Creativity in the Value Creation Process

in Proceedings of the 42th European Marketing Academy (EMAC), 2013, Istanbul, Turkey

Paper presented in a Conference

2013

TAILLARD, M., B. VOYER, V. GLAVEANU

The Role of Consumer Creativity in the Value Creation Process

in Proceedings of the the Naples Forum on Service, 2013, Ischia

Journal Article

2013

SHANTZ, A., K. ALFES, C. TRUSS, E. SOANE

The role of employee engagement in the relationship between job design and task performance, citizenship and deviant behaviours

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, 2013, vol. 24, Issue 13, pp. 2608-2627

Paper presented in a Conference

2013

KASTANAKIS, M., B. VOYER

The role of pre-behavioural processes in understanding cross-cultural differences in consumption

in Proceedings of the Australia-New-Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC), 2013, Auckland, New Zealand

Paper presented in a Conference

2013

ALKAYYALI, R., N. PRIME, A. AMINE

The role of religiosity in consumer acculturation strategies

in Proceedings of the 42nd European Marketing Academy Conference, EMAC, 2013, Istanbul

Journal Article

2013

VOYER, B., T. READER

The Self-Construal of Nurses and Doctors

JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, 2013, vol. Vol. 69, Issue 12, pp. pp. 2696-2706 11 p.

Paper presented in a Conference

2013

HARZING, A. -W., S. , B. REICHE, M. PUDELKO

The Sensitivity of Subsidiary Knowledge In and Outflows to Language Proximity

in Proceedings of the 70th Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2013, Florida, United States

Journal Article

2013

BUNKANWANICHA, P., J. P. H. FAN, Y. WIWATTANAKANTANG

The Value of Marriage to Family Firms

JFQA JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS, 2013, vol. 48 (2), pp. 611-636