‘I’m invested very heavily in Peckham as a community, from family, to food, to friends, to the Nigerian community to the different places I have inhabited’, says Elijah Maja, who is currently on the Open Plan Gallery Traineeship at the South London Gallery (the SLG).
Elijah has a strong interest in the arts and community sectors and is especially focused on working with children. Before working at the SLG he had a couple of creative projects set up with friends, such as World Service; an arts, radio and broadcasting channel, and Matter Research; a platform for Black artists to show, discuss and formulate rapport. He noticed it was hard to grab people’s attention when you are not approaching them from a recognised or established company. He was drawn to the job at the SLG because of his interest in providing access and resources to the next generation allowing them to see what their true potentials are. His big interest is in ‘providing access to children; black and minority ethnic groups/people who are often overlooked in arts, with access and visibility being of utmost importance to my outreach efforts.’
One of Elijah’s biggest concerns is to make sure that children who live in the local area know that the gallery is for them too, that there are things they can get out of it, which is why it is important for him to be at the Fox Reception at the gallery on a Saturday, to let the children know ‘it’s your area, it’s your home, and you should feel comfortable going inside these spaces.’
He wants to encourage the local kids that art is for them, and isn’t something to feel alienated by. The SLG are very aware of their responsibility to provide a visible avenue for people coming from local communities, from non-arts backgrounds, from families without the privilege of access from birth to have access to the gallery.
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