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

Chapter

2010

GALINDO, G.

Protébio

in Pratiques de GRH dans les pays anglophones : 48 études de cas., F. CHEVALIER (ed.), Vuibert, pp. pp. 330-353 24 p., 2010

Conference Proceedings

2010

STEYER, V.

Public authorities and private sector in France: an essential but problematic collaboration in preparing influenza pandemic

in XVII ISA World Congress of Sociology, ISA World Congress of Sociology, 2010, Gothenburg, Sweden

Chapter

2010

BROWN, K., J. BURGESS, M. FESTING, R. KEAST, S. ROYER, C. STEFFEN

Public Policies to Enhance Cluster Development

in Business Clusters: Partnering for Strategic Advantage., JAYACHANDRAN, C., THORPE, M., SUBRAMANIAN, R., NAGADEVARA, V. (Eds), Routledge / Taylor and Francis, 2010

Paper presented in a Conference

2010

COUTURIER, J., G. SCARSO-BORIOLI, D. SOLA

Quantitative Management: A Critical Resource in Business Model Innovation

in Proceedings of the 30th annual international conference of the Strategic Management Society, 2010, Rome

Edited Special Issue

2010

THEVENET, M., F. BOURNOIS, C. BOURION

Quelles images du travail et des responsables ?

2010, REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE PSYCHOSOCIOLOGIE ET DE GESTION DES COMPORTEMENTS ORGANISATIONNELS, Paris, France

Paper presented in a Conference

2010

SURPLY, J., G. GALINDO

Quelles régulations du fait religieux en entreprise ?

in Acte du XXIème congrès de l'AGRH, 2010, Saint Malo

Journal Article

2010

SURPLY, J., G. GALINDO

Quelles régulations du fait religieux en entreprise ?

REVUE INTERNATIONALE DE PSYCHOSOCIOLOGIE ET DE GESTION DES COMPORTEMENTS ORGANISATIONNELS, November 2010, vol. Vol. 16, n° 40, pp. pp. 29-55 26 p.

Paper presented in a Conference

2010

BADOT, O., J.-F. LEMOINE

Quels enseignements tirer de la série tv Dr. House pour l'ethnomarketing

in Actes des 15èmes Journées de Recherche en Marketing de Bourgogne, 2010, Dijon, France

Paper presented in a Conference

2010

BUREAU, S., M. BICK, S. PIRAMUTHU, Y. MEILLER, W. ZHOU, S. FOSSO WAMBA

Radio Frequency Identification: A Case for Healthcare

in Proceedings of the IIWAS, ERPAS Conference, Paris, 2010, Paris, France

Book

2010

MARCHAT, H.

Réaliser le diagnostic d'une organisation

Gereso, 2010