Creativity is central to Lucy Maycock’s life and she is proud of the legacy she leaves behind as she steps down as artistic director of the North Wall after six years at the helm, she tells William Crossley

LUCY Maycock's involvement with the arts centre goes back to the day in 2006 when, as the new head of drama at St Edward’s School, she was looking for potential performance spaces and walked into a disused indoor swimming pool, used to store furniture.

When she asked if could be turned into a rough-and-ready theatre, she was told: “No, we can do a bit better.”

The concept for what became the North Wall was already taking shape in the minds of the then warden David Christie, composer George Fenton, a governor and former pupil, and Anthony Kerr-Dineen, the then director of cultural studies.

She said: “The school have done an amazing thing with this place. It’s not an easy thing they’ve done and they’ve led the way. Lots of other schools are contacting us about the model and come to talk to us.

“It takes a leap of faith and it’s recognising that art is valuable, not just because of what’s on the curriculum. If you really believe the arts are educationally valuable, they are educationally valuable to the whole person, not just because unit 1, paper 2, happens to be covering something.

“So that’s very powerful and I’m very impressed with the school. Each of the wardens in the time I have been here have stuck behind that vision and sought to grow it.

“We’re an arts centre and an art gallery, not just a theatre, and they are seeking to grow that as well and broaden the offer, so that even more young people can take part – that isn’t a tickbox thing, it’s a genuine vision and commitment and that’s impressive.

“Their desire is about education, not about reputation or money.”

The school’s commitment was also demonstrated when it came to making the vision a reality, she added.

“The architects were geniuses. They did the thing all real artists do, which is they listened very carefully to what was going to happen in the building, so you can see it’s very approachable. You can hammer things into it, paint it, you don’t have to be precious about it. But it’s also very beautiful.”

The building that resulted provides a bridge between the school and the city of Oxford beyond the boundary wall that runs along South Parade.

Lucy said: “All schools and colleges are little worlds of their own and it’s really important that they have experience of opening the doors and people coming in and out, because that’s life. A lot of that is to do with where we are. If we hadn’t been at the edge of the campus it would have been much more difficult to do this if people had to come in and walk through the school – here you can ignore the school if you want to.”

A key point of pride for her is the North Wall’s ArtsLab<> programme, which opens up its facilities and those of the school to young artists from all over the UK to experiment with ideas and create new work during residential workshops.

She said: “I feel passionately ambitious for its future. I want it to carry on being what it is – offering opportunities for young people from around the country, because that’s the heart of what we do really, our ArtsLab work, our producing work, our programme as well. It has been wonderful over the 10 years watching young people come here and being able to be in an environment that is challenging, but which offers a safe place to make mistakes, to make new work – fewer and fewer places exist that will take risks with artists, and particularly young artists.”

She added: “I’d guard that, be fierce about it. I want this place to continue to be useful, that’s the most important thing – be useful. Being idealistic is great, it’s great if it does good, but most of all, is it useful?

“For the ArtsLab kids, who come from all over the country, I see that it has made a difference and I’m proud of that. It is needed. I know there are other places and people who need help – the NHS needs help, the homeless issue in Oxford is becoming scary - but people do actually need time to make things, to be creative and to make excellent things, so that matters to me.”

As she refocuses her energy on theatre directing and writing, Lucy Maycock is confident that her successor will take over an institution with plenty of scope to develop.

She said: “I ran it from the beginning and it’s time for someone else to have a go. It’s not about me and whoever comes in will have all of this energy, they will have a good base to build on. The reputation is good and we’re well bedded in now.”