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 :
13045 publications

Journal Article

2012

NEJADHOSSEINI SOUDANI, S.

The Usefulness of an Accounting Information System for Effective Organizational Performance

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS AND FINANCE JOURNAL, 2012

Guest Speaker in a Conference

2012

VOYER, B., G.

The value of 'People like Me': why financial services need consumer generated content

2012, MarketForce UK

Chapter

2012

RADICA, G.

Théorie du style et théorie des idées : Condillac et Hume.

in Les langues philosophes., Céline Denat, Patrick Wotling Eds, Langage et pensée, 2012

Book

2012

SAUSSOIS, J.-M.

Théories des organisations

Repères, Paris, France, 2012

Journal Article

2012

BELL, B., S. W. J. KOZLOWSKI

Three conceptual themes for future research on teams

INDUSTRIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, 2012, vol. 5 (1), pp. p. 45-48 (4 pp.)

Paper presented in a Conference

2012

MERCADO, S.

TNE, Strategic Partnering and the Case of Central and Eastern Europe

in Proceedings of the ABS International & External Relations Conference, 2012, London, United Kingdom

Chapter

2012

SCHMID, S., T. KOTULLA

To Standardize or to Adapt? A Comprehensive Review and Assessment of the Literature

in Markteintrittsstrategien: Dynamik und Komplexität., Zentes, J. (Ed.), Springer Gabler, vol. mir-Edition, pp. pp. 51-93, 2012

Paper presented in a Conference

2012

SCHMID, S., T. KOTULLA

To what Degree Should Firms Standardise or Adapt their Product Mix Strategies across Countries? New Empirical Results Based on the Strategic-Fit Approach

in 38th Annual Conference of the European International Business Academy, 2012, Brighton, United Kingdom

Paper presented in a Conference

2012

SCHMID, S., T. KOTULLA

To what Degree Should Firms Standardize or Adapt their Product Mix across Countries? New Empirical Results Based on the Strategic Fit Approach

in 2012 Annual Meeting of the Academy of International Business, 2012, Washington D.C., United States

Book

2012

J.-M. SCHOETI, Y. LABAT

Toute la Fonction Consulting

Dunod, 2012