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

Chapter

2006

REFICCO, E., R. GUTIÉRREZ, D. TRUJILLO

Creating Social and Economic Value

in Effective Management of Social Enterprises. Lessons from Businesses and Civil Society Organizations in Iberoamerica., James Austin, Roberto Gutiérrez, Enrique Ogliastri, Ezequiel Reficco Eds, Harvard University Press, chap. 10, pp. 251-276, 2006

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

GEUSER, F. D., M. FIOL

Crise de cohérence au sein des équipes de direction et système OVAR

in Actes du Séminaire d'ergonomie, Université de Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbone, 2006, Paris, France

Radio Talk

2006

NOLDUS, J. -W.

Culture et Histoire des Pays-Bas, de l'Allemagne, de l'Angleterre et de l'Europe Centrale

2006, France Culture

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

TISSIER-DESBORDES, E.

Culture, Materialism and Renting Behavior in Europe

in Proceedings of the CLADEA 41st Annual Assembly, 2006, Montpellier, France

Journal Article

2006

HILTON, D. J., L. CABANTOUS

De l'aversion à l'ambiguïté aux attitudes face à l'ambiguïté

REVUE ECONOMIQUE - FONDATION NATIONALE DES SCIENCES POLITIQUES, 2006, vol. Vol. 57, n°2, pp. pp. 259-280 21 p.

Journal Article

2006

ARNAUD, G., M. DUBOULOY

De la recherche à l'intervention : l'apport de la psychosociologie clinique

PSYCHOLOGUES ET PSYCHOLOGIES, 2006, vol. 190, pp. 10-12

Review of a book; an article; a research

2006

SYLVESTRE, S.

De quelques avatars des actions de préférence

2006, REVUE TRIMESTRIELLE DE DROIT FINANCER

Journal Article

2006

NAWROT, W.

Demand for stocks in the Warsaw Stock Exchange: Effect on the Market Liquidity

GOSPODARKA NARODOWA - THE POLISH JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS, 2006, vol. 7/8

Chapter

2006

ACQUIER, A., M. EYHERABIDE

Démarches de gestion des dynamiques de métier en conception automobile

in L'observatoire des métiers, Concepts et Pratiques., BOYER L., SCOUARNEC A. (eds), Management et Société, pp. pp 187-209 23 p, 2006

Journal Article

2006

SCHMIDT, M.

Der Bewertungsmassstab bei erstmaliger Erfassung

KOR: ZEITSCHRIFT FUR INTERNATIONALE UND KAPITALMARKTORIENTIERTE RECHNUNGSLEGUNG, 2006, vol. 6, pp. 65-75 11 S.