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 :
13052 publications

Edited Book / Textbook

2006

DELVAILLE, P., C. HOSSFELD, C. MAILLET, A. LE MANH, C. SIMON, A. MIKOL, J.-Y. EGLEM, H. STOLOWY

Comptabilité financière de l'entreprise

Business, Paris, France, 2006

Textbook

2006

SIMON, C., P. DELVAILLE, J.-Y. EGLEM, C. HOSSFELD, A. LE MANH, C. MAILLET, A. MIKOL, C. BONNIER

Comptabilité financière des groupes

2006, Business, Paris, France

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

CALABRETTA, G., B. DURISIN

Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Firm Innovativeness through the Decision Perspective: A Cross-Sectional Study

in Proceedings of the 13th International Product Development Management Conference - PDMA, European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIAMS), 2006, Milan, Italy

Contribution on blogs and Social Networks

2006

NEALE, P., C. BOYCE

Conducting In-Depth Interviews: A Guide for Designing and Conducting In-Depth Interviews for Evaluation Input

2006, Pathfinder

Journal Article

2006

AZHAR ARNAL, J., J.-P. GALAVIELLE

Confiance et marché, entre normes éthiques et puissance publique

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SYSTEMS, 2006, vol. 19 (1), pp. 39-56

Chapter

2006

NAWROT, W.

Contribution to: Part IV: Macroeconomic and Ownership Policy

in Necessary Economic Reforms in Poland: Recommendations., Blaszczyk, B. Eds, CASE-Centrum Analiz Społeczno- Ekonomicznych Fundacja Naukowa, 2006

Habilitation Dissertation

2006

CHANGEUR, S.

Contributions à l'étude de la performance en marketing

Université Paris 9 - Dauphine, pp. 35 p., 2006

Textbook

2006

J.-F. GAVANOU, J. LE VOURC'H

Controlor and auditor

2006, Dunod, Paris, France

Published Case Study

2006

BARTON, B., E. REFICCO, V. K. RANGAN

Corporate Responsibility & Community Engagement at the Tintaya Copper Mine (B)

2006, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, United States

Chapter

2006

ET ALII, E. A., M. PALACIOS

Creación y Financiación de empresas de base tecnológica

in Análisis y propuesta de actuaciones para el fortalecimiento de las relaciones universidad-empresa., Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, pp. pp.157-185 29 p., 2006