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 :
13050 publications

Paper presented in a Conference

2008

BRANDIMARTE, P., P. BUSATO, R. BERRUTO, M. CHINO

INTEGRATING SIMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION FOR INVENTORY CONTROL OF PERISHABLE ITEMS

in Procedings of IV International Symposium on Applications of Modelling as an Innovative Technology in the Agri-Food-Chain: Model-IT, 2008, Madrid, Spain

Chapter

2008

COEURDEROY, R., V. DUPLAT

Intermediary Institutions and Embeddedness in Technology Networks

in Strategy and Governance of Networks: Cooperatives, Franchising, and Strategic Alliances., HENDRIKSE G., CLIQUET G., TUUNANEN M., WINDSPERGER J. (eds), Physica-Verlag, 2008

Paper presented in a Conference

2008

COLLIN, B., J. ROUTIER-PUCCI

International Diversity Management: Operational Keys and Insights

in Proceedings of the 8th Annual Conference of the European Academy of Management (EURAM), 2008, Ljubljana

Textbook

2008

DOWLING, P. J., M. FESTING, A. ENGLE

International Human Resource management

2008, Cengage Learning, London, United Kingdom

Textbook

2008

KUTSCHKER, M., S. SCHMID

Internationales Management

2008, Oldenbourg, Munich, Vienna, Germany

Chapter

2008

FRERY, F.

Introduction de l'édition française

in La fin du management : inventer les règles de demain., HAMEL G. Ed., Vuibert, pp. pp. VII-X 4 p., 2008

Journal Article

2008

CREEL, J., G. POILON

Is public capital productive in Europe?

INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF APPLIED ECONOMICS, November 2008, vol. Vol.22, Issue 6, pp. pp.673-691 19p

Paper presented in a Conference

2008

FEL, F.

Is sustainability inducing any real changes in purchasing strategies ?

in 'Corporate Responsability and Sustainability: Leadership and Organizational Change', Proceedings of the European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS) Colloquium, 2008, Cranfield

Conference Proceedings

2008

AZHAR ARNAL, J.

Journée de recherche EBEN sur l’éthique de l’entreprise - le concept d’intégrité

in Procedings of Journée de recherche EBEN sur l’éthique de l’entreprise - le concept d’intégrité, EBEN, 2008, Paris, France

Journal Article

2008

GIRAUD, F., P. LANGEVIN, C. MENDOZA

Justice as a rationale for the controllability principle: a study of managers? opinions

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, March 2008, vol. Vol. 19, issue 1, pp. pp. 32-44 13 p.