Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette Art Thinking

See this page in
French[FR]

 



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 :
13045 publications

Paper presented in a Conference

2012

SCHMID, S., T. DAUTH

Does Internationalization Make a Difference? Stock Market Reaction to Announcements of International Top Executive Appointments

in Annual Meeting of the International Management Division within the German Academic Association for Business Research, 2012, Saarbrücken, Germany

Paper presented in a Conference

2012

CONWAY, E., N. FU, K. MONKS, C. TRUSS, K. ALFES

Doing More with Less: Exploring the Effects of HR Practices on Emotional Exhaustion in the Public Service

in Proceedings of the British Academy Management 2012 Conference, 2012, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Journal Article

2012

BORZILLO, S., G. PROBST, A. SCHMITT

Don't let Knowledge Walk Away: Knowledge Retention During Employee Downsizing

MANAGEMENT LEARNING, 2012, vol. 43 (1), pp. 53-74

Textbook

2012

BERTREL, J.-P., A. MEDINA, M.-P. FENOLL-TROUSSEAU, D. FASQUELLE

Droit de l'entreprise 2012/2013

2012, Lamy, Rueil-Malmaison, France

Chapter

2012

MEDINA, A.

Droit pénal des affaires (partie 9)

in Droit de l'entreprise 2012/2013 : l'essentiel pour comprendre le droit ; Lamy., Lamy, pp. pp.1797-1919 122 p., 2012

Journal Article

2012

CABANTOUS, L., J.-P. GOND

Du mode d'existence des théories dans les organisations : la fabrique de la décision comme praxis performative, in : La fabrique de la décision

REVUE FRANCAISE DE GESTION, June 2012, vol. n° 225, vol. 38, pp. pp 61-81 21

Journal Article

2012

COLLA, E., P. LAPOULE

E-Commerce : exploring the critical success factors

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RETAIL AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT, 2012, vol. 40, 11, pp. 842 864

Journal Article

2012

JOFFRAIN, W.

Economia mondiale e situazione italiana

POLITEIA, 2012, pp. 15-28

Contribution on blogs and Social Networks

2012

VOYER, B., G.

Educating customers: a challenge to marketers' creativity

2012, Creativity Marketing Centre Blog

Research Monograph (Working papers)

2012

D. ROUZET

Education and Military Rivalry

NBER / NBER Working Papers, 2012