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

Journal Article

2010

TRUSS, C., E. SOANE, K. ALFES, C. REES, M. GATENBY

Engaging the "Pole Vaulters" on Your Staff

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, 2010, vol. 83, Issue 3, pp. 24

Chapter

2010

TAFUR, J.

Engineering and knowledge management

in Ingenieria y Gestion Del Conocimiento., CORTÉS ACHEDAD P., GONZÁLEZ RAMÍREZ J. M., MUÑUZURI SANZ, J. Eds, Catedra IAT, pp. pp. 203-214 12 p., 2010

Journal Article

2010

MIKOL, A.

Enquête de l'IFAC sur les préoccupations de la profession comptable

REVUE FRANCAISE DE COMPTABILITE, June 2010, vol. n° 433, pp. p. 19

Paper presented in a Conference

2010

FENDT, J., S. BUREAU

Entrepreneurial Mindset and Informal Entrepreneurship - The Power of "Grey"

in Proceedings of the International Entrepreneurship Conference ENTIME, Gdansk, 2010, Gdansk

Paper presented in a Conference

2010

BUREAU, S., J. FENDT

Entrepreneurship in the Informal Economy: Why does it Matter?

in Proceedings of the Bulgarian Association for Management Development and Entrepreneurship (BAMDE) International Conference, 2010, Borovets

Paper presented in a Conference

2010

C. DESTEFANO

Environmental innovation and performance: The particular case of the automobile industry

in 3RD ISPIM INNOVATION SYMPOSIUM, 2010, Canada

Paper presented in a Conference

2010

C. DESTEFANO

Environmental innovation and performance: The particular case of the automobile industry

in 26TH EGOS COLLOQUIUM, 2010, Portugal

Paper presented in a Conference

2010

BRUSSET, X., R. JALLET-CATTAN

Estimating the buyer's willingness to pay using Bayesian belief distribution with IFR

in Proceeding of Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (M&SOM) Conference, 2010, Haïfa

Journal Article

2010

DESLANDES, G.

Ethique des organisations

L'EXPANSION MANAGEMENT REVIEW, June 2010, vol. n° 137, pp. pp. 103-111 8 p.

Paper presented in a Conference

2010

BADOT, O.

Ethnomarketing : définition, influences et modalités pratiques

in Actes du séminaire d'ouverture du Master recherche et conseil, 2010, Caen