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When Emma Pavans de Ceccatty joined Regen, she brought with her an uncommon mix of disciplines — philosophy, environmental ethics, and art — and an instinct that the space between art and energy held untapped potential.
“I’ve always lived between worlds,” she reflects. “In my family, art and science were equal at the dinner table. One minute we’d be talking about Impressionists, the next about new findings in Nature.”
That lifelong curiosity became a compass for her time at Regen, where she helped rekindle the organisation’s creative spark. She could see there was an appetite for innovation within Regen, and so developed the concept of Arts Lab, Emma saw that creativity could do more than decorate energy conversations — it could transform them.
“Regen had this rare openness — a belief that new ideas are worth trying. It was a place that said yes.”
With support from colleagues like Rachel Hayes, Emma designed and launched Regen’s first Art Lab Residency — a simple but radical experiment pairing artists with energy professionals to explore new ways of seeing the energy transition. Her vision was for artists to act as bridges: outsiders fluent in human stories and emotion, who could translate technical systems into something people could feel.
“I wanted to bring in voices from outside the usual bubble — people who could make energy visible and human.”
That first residency, led by artist Karenza Spearpoint, embodied this spirit. Karenza’s “Heat Creatures” imagined a cast of elemental beings inspired by the energy system — playful, characterful, and accessible. “She created a whole universe,” Emma recalls. “It was charged, open-ended, the kind of work that keeps living in people’s imaginations.”
Emma’s commitment to accessibility was matched by her clarity about what makes these collaborations succeed. She believes they work best when both artists and energy organisations embrace uncertainty.
“You have to loosen control,” she says. “That’s where the real discoveries happen.”
After her time at Regen, Emma continued to explore this intersection through a PhD in art-science collaboration, where she is now shaping her own ethical framework for cross-disciplinary practice. She still describes Regen as a turning point — a place that showed her what can happen when creative openness meets scientific rigour.
She also left a visual mark on the organisation: a series of paintings now displayed in Regen’s offices, each one capturing the spirit of a team or technology — marine energy, offshore wind, energy storage — in dream-like vignettes. “I wanted to make little worlds,” she says, “that people could step into and feel part of.”
Today, Emma sees the future of art and energy collaboration as a call for abundance and diversity: more voices, more mediums, more experiments running side by side.
“We need more shows, not one show that speaks for everyone,” she says. “Let’s take more risks. Let’s invite artists who’ve never worked with energy before, and see what happens.”
Her journey shows how a single artist’s curiosity can re-ignite a whole organisation’s creative courage — and how, when art and energy truly meet, both become more alive.
Emma emphasised that creativity thrives where people feel safe to experiment and not fear failure or judgement.
“You have to feel like your ideas won’t be dismissed the moment they’re out of your mouth.”
She described Regen as a place that allowed this kind of playfulness:
“Regen had this rare openness — a belief that new ideas are worth trying. It was a place that said yes.”
That openness — even in small doses — gave people permission to step outside the usual logic of policy and planning, and into imagination.
Emma believes creativity can’t be forced into linear project management structures. It needs room for ambiguity, curiosity, and surprise.
“You have to loosen control. That’s where the real discoveries happen.”
For her, creative processes often look inefficient to those used to measurable outputs — but that very looseness is where insight emerges.
She talked about the importance of bringing in artists, thinkers, and communities from outside the usual energy networks, to inject new perspectives.
“I wanted to bring in voices from outside the bubble — people who could make energy visible and human.”
She saw this as crucial not just for creative variety, but for equity: broadening who gets to tell stories about energy.
Emma views creative collaboration as a process of translation — not instruction. The best environments are those that value translators: people comfortable moving between art, science, and policy.
“It’s not about explaining energy systems more beautifully. It’s about translating them into something people can feel.”
In other words, creativity needs both openness and interpreters — people who can hold space between worlds.
Emma pointed out that beauty itself — visual, conceptual, or emotional — is part of the learning process.
“The arts make space for reflection, for pausing. That’s when things connect in new ways.”
For her, Regen’s willingness to display art in its offices was a small but powerful gesture: a daily reminder that creativity belongs here.
She described how creative work at Regen succeeded because people were willing to experiment, learn, and adapt rather than seeking the perfect idea from the start.
“You need an environment where it’s okay to not know. Where trying something is valued as much as finishing something.”
Finally, Emma spoke about the importance of connecting creative freedom to meaningful purpose — sustainability, justice, care, and the future.
“People open up when they believe the work matters. It’s not just about art for art’s sake — it’s art as a way of caring.”
For Emma, creativity flourishes when:
As she put it,
“Creativity isn’t just a skill — it’s an atmosphere. You have to create the weather for it.”
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