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 :
13049 publications

Conference Proceedings

2011

JACOB, F., B. RETTINGER

The role of customer co-production in value creation

in Proceedings of the Naples Forum on Service, Naples Forum on Service, 2011, Capri, Italy

Guest Speaker in a Conference

2011

VOYER, B., G., C. PROVENCHER

The role of extreme events on consumer behaviours

2011, AKO Capital

Journal Article

2011

TRAN, V., P. GARCIA-PRIETO, S. C. SCHNEIDER

The role of social identity, appraisal, and emotion in determining responses to diversity management

HUMAN RELATIONS, 2011, vol. Vol. 64, Issue 2, pp. pp. 161-176 16 p.

Chapter

2011

KETS DE VRIES, M. F. R., K. BALAZS

The Shadow Side of Leadership

in The Sage Handbook of Leadership., BRYMAN A., COLLINSON D. L., GRINT K., JACKSON B., UHL-BIEN M. Eds, Sage, pp. pp. 380-390 11 p., 2011

Paper presented in a Conference

2011

RASKOVIC, M.

The SME financing gap in Slovenia : a macro economic perspective on a micro economic SME financing problem.

in Researching economic development and enterpreneurship in transitional economies, 2011, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Journal Article

2011

FERNÁNDEZ DE CORDOBA, G.

The Transitory VAT Cut in the UK: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis

ECONOMIC ISSUES, 2011

Journal Article

2011

FERNÁNDEZ DE CORDOBA, G.

The Walrasian Output Beats the Market

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GAME THEORY, 2011

Journal Article

2011

HOLWEG, M., T. STÄBLEIN, J. MIEMCZYK

Theoretical versus actual product variety: how much customisation do customers really demand?

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OPERATIONS AND PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT, 2011, vol. 31/3, pp. 350-370

Paper presented in a Conference

2011

BADOT, O.

Théorie du Réenchantement de la consommation et de la distribution

in Actes du Séminaire Doctoral des 10èmes Journées Normandes de Recherche sur la Consommation, 2011, Rouen

Journal Article

2011

KUPP, M., J. ANDERSON, J. RECKHENRICH

Think again : Entrepreneurs on a dance floor

BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW, 2011, vol. Vol. 22, Issue 1, pp. pp. 65-68 4 p.