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

2009

FEL, F.

Purchasers' Involvement in Sustainable Development: Great Expectations and Various Realities

JOURNAL OF GLOBAL STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT, June 2009, pp. pp.113-120 8p.

Journal Article

2009

SAUSSOIS, J.-M.

Qu'enseigner de la crise aux dirigeants de demain ?

in Crise, krach, récession, big bang ?., L'EXPANSION MANAGEMENT REVIEW, June 2009, vol. n° 133, pp. pp. 46-51 6 p.

Conference Proceedings

2009

BAUDOIN, E.

Qualitative Reseach with NVIVO: Between Opportunities to Explore and Risks to Be in Distress

in Proceedings of the 10th Advances in Qualitative Methods Conference, AQM, 2009

Journal Article

2009

DESLANDES, G., J. MAIXENT

Quand l'audience est le média

HERMES, 2009, vol. n° 55, pp. pp. 125-130

Paper presented in a Conference

2009

GALINDO, G.

Qui gère les ressources humaines des PME françaises de biotechnologie ?

in Actes des Journées PME-GRT AGRH, 2009, Toulouse, France

Paper presented in a Conference

2009

GALINDO, G.

Qui sont les gestionnaires des ressources humaines dans les entreprises de recherche en France ?

in Actes du Colloque prospective des métiers au service du management et de la GRH, 2009, ESSEC

Journal Article

2009

KAPLAN, A., M. HAENLEIN

Rapprochement entre le marketing et l'administration publique

REVUE FRANCAISE DU MARKETING, September 2009, vol. n° 224, pp. pp. 49-66 18 p.

Journal Article

2009

PAPE, U., M. SCHLECKER

Reaktion von Credit Spreads auf Finanzmarktkrisen am Beispiel der Subprime-Krise und der LTCM-Krise

FINANZ BETRIEB, 2009, vol. 11 Jg., pp. S. 38-45 8 S.

Review of a book; an article; a research

2009

ACQUIER, A.

Recension de l'ouvrage : "Décider avec les parties prenantes, Approches d?une nouvelle théorie de la société civile", BONNAFOUS-BOUCHER M., PESQUEUX Y. (eds.), La Découverte, Paris, 2006, 270 p.

2009, SOCIOLOGIE DU TRAVAIL

Journal Article

2009

BOUDES, T., H. LAROCHE

Récits de crise en quête de responsables

in Crise, krach, récession, big bang ?., L'EXPANSION MANAGEMENT REVIEW, June 2009, vol. n° 133, pp. pp. 10-19 10 p.