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 :
13031 publications

Journal Article

2024

BUCHNER, A., P. HELBING, A. MOHAMED, D. YOON

Historical Military Conflict and Cross-Border VC Performance: The Role of Ownership Control

BRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, 2024, vol. 35 (2), pp. 992-1013

Journal Article

2024

GHIAIE, H.

Housing, the credit market, and unconventional monetary policies: from the sovereign crisis to the great lockdown

OXFORD ECONOMIC PAPERS, 2024, vol. 76 (2), pp. 330–350

Journal Article

2024

FORAMITTI, J., I. SAVIN, J. VAN DEN BERGH

How carbon pricing affects human needs: An agent-based model analysis

ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS, 2024, vol. 217, pp. 108070

Paper presented in a Conference

2024

FESTING, M., H. DE CIERI

How do we Measure Inclusion in Organizations? Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda. Paper accepted for presentation at the 5th Human Resources International Conference in Dunedin/New Zealand, January 2024.

in 5th Human Resources International Conference, 2024, Dunedin, New Zealand

ESCP Impact Papers

2024

FROESE, T., F. LÜDEKE-FREUND, F. HOFMANN, M. RICHTER

How Organisations Can Engage in Degrowth-oriented Value Creation

2024, ESCP Impact Papers

ESCP Impact Papers

2024

CASANUEVA, C.

How to use learnings from behavioral finance theory to lead change and improve democracy in future turbulent times in Spain and in the European Union

2024, ESCP Impact Papers

Contribution on blogs and Social Networks

2024

CHAMAKIOTIS, P., G. SYMON, R. WHITING

How workers use hybrid and liminal practices to manage work-life boundaries

2024, LSE Business Review, United Kingdom

ESCP Impact Papers

2024

OBERHAUSER, M., L. KIRSTE, H. VOSS

Human rights violations in global value chains – Four non-state measures for better protection

2024, ESCP Impact Papers

Contribution on blogs and Social Networks

2024

CHAMAKIOTIS, P., G. SYMON, R. WHITING

Hybrid and Liminal Practices to Manage Work-Life Boundaries

2024, International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Insights

Guest Speaker in a Research Seminar

2024

CHAMAKIOTIS, P.

Hybridity and Liminality in Contemporary Boundary Work in the Digital Era: A Video and Interview Study

Brown Bag Seminar Series, Department of Information Systems. 2024, Taiwan, Taiwan, Province Of China