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

Chapter

2013

FESTING, M., L. SCHÄFFER

Value Creation Through Human Resource Management Networks and Talent Management in Clusters

in Resources and Competitive Advantage in Clusters., BROWN K., BURGESS J., FESTING M., ROYER S. (Eds.) Eds, Rainer Hampp, pp. pp. 170-189 20 p., 2013

Journal Article

2013

FIGGE, F., T. HAHN

Value drivers of corporate eco-efficiency: Management accounting information for the efficient use of environmental resources

Global Management Accounting Research Symposium, 2013, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 387-400

PhD Dissertation

2013

AKSOY, D.

Value Implications of Open Source Software

2013, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain

Chapter

2013

BRUNS, K., J. SIEVERT, F. JACOB

Value in Context - Eine ressourcen-dynamische Perspektive

in Theorie und Praxis des Dienstleistungsmarketing., SCHMITZ G. (ed.), Gabler, pp. 27-50, 2013

Research Monograph (Working papers)

2013

BUREAU, S., P. TECTIN, C. BRUNO

Vers une artisation du monde ou l'emergence d'un art effectual

aRt&Design Lab, 2013

Conference Proceedings

2013

ALONSO, G., L. MARTÍN, A. BENITO

Viabilidad de una nueva compañía aérea de bajo coste en Brasil

in Procedings of 4e Congreso de la Red Iberoamericana de Investigadores de Transporte Aéreo, RIDITA IV, 2013, La plata, Argentina

Conference Proceedings

2013

ALONSO, G., A. GÓMEZ-SAN JUAN, F. NAVARRO, J. CUBAS, F. SORRIBES

Vibration loads in the process of designing scientific spacecraft payloads

in Procedings of 11th International Conference on Vibration Problems, ICOVP, 2013, Lisboa, Portugal

Chapter

2013

BADOT, O.

Wal-mart

in Le consommateur malin face à la crise., CLOCHARD F., DESJEUX D. (eds.) Eds, L'Harmattan, chap. T.1, 2013

Journal Article

2013

SCHMID, S., R. WILKEN, M. DAMMER-HENSELMANN

Was bedeutet Internationalität in der Managementweiterbildung? Eine nachfrageorientierte Studie auf Basis von Latent-Class-Conjoint-Analysen

ZEITSCHRIFT FUR BETRIEBSWIRTSCHAFTLICHE FORSCHUNG, 2013, vol. Vol. 65, No. 3, pp. pp. 249-273

Guest Speaker in a Research Seminar

2013

SCHMID, S.

Wenn Töchter die Initiative ergreifen: Die Bedeutung von ausländischen Tochtergesellschaften in internationalen Unternehmen

Tochtergesellschaften in internationalen Unternehmen. 2013, Graz, Austria