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 :
13049 publications

Journal Article

2011

MIKOL, A.

Le rapport Hidalgo et l'audit dans l'Union européenne

REVUE FRANCAISE DE COMPTABILITE, November 2011, vol. n° 448, pp. p. 20 1 p.

Journal Article

2011

JALLAT, F.

Le service client comme levier de performance et de différenciation concurrentielle. Le cas Flying Blue

DM - DECISIONS MARKETING, October 2011, vol. n° 64, pp. pp 75-77 3

Book

2011

DANIEL, J.-M.

Le socialisme de l'excellence

Francois Bourin, Paris, France, 2011

Journal Article

2011

BELGODERE, B.

Le Sponsoring maillot des clubs de Ligue 1

UCPF, 2011, vol. Janvier 2011

Journal Article

2011

JOFFRAIN, W.

Le start up in Italia

IDEM, 2011, pp. 56-59

Studies and Reports commissioned by Companies and Research Agencies

2011

BOISSIERES, I.

Leadership en sécurité : pratiques industrielles

2011

Journal Article

2011

JALLAT, F., C. J. SCHULTZ

Lebanon: From cataclysm to opportunity—Crisis management lessons for MNCs in the tourism sector of the Middle East Fre´

JOURNAL OF WORLD BUSINESS, October 2011, vol. Vol. 46, Issue 4, pp. pp. 476-486 11 p.

Guest Speaker in a Conference

2011

LAMY, E.

Les "Bonnes Pratiques de Laboratoire" et l'encadrement de l'innovation dans les PME de biotechnologies

2011, International Sociological Association, Cachan, France

Conference Proceedings

2011

HAAS, G.

Les 5 risques majeurs des CGV

in Les 5 risques majeurs des CGV, Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Paris, 2011, Paris, France

Edited Book / Textbook

2011

CLAISSE, C., A. NABOULET, C. CLAISSE

Les accords collectifs d'entreprise et plans d'action en faveur de l'emploi des salariés âgés: une analyse de 116 textes.

DARES, 2011