American Friends of the Free Music School

American Friends of the Free Music School expands access to artistic education, creative space, and cultural participation in Barcelona. Contributions support pay-what-you-can public programming, fair compensation for artists and educators, materials, and an accessible neighborhood space for learning, rehearsal, experimentation, and exchange.

Founded in 2022 in Poble-sec, Barcelona, the Free Music School operates as a registered nonprofit association in Catalonia. It is rooted in its neighborhood and international in outlook. The school was co-founded by Michael Hart, an American artist and producer whose professional work in the arts began in 1994 and has included international projects since 2007. His work has often involved helping artists turn ideas into performances, gatherings, publications, residencies, and shared spaces. The school brings this experience into a collective, street-level space shaped by the artists, educators, neighbors, and participants who use it.

American Friends of the Free Music School gives Michael’s friends, colleagues, and a wider community of supporters in the United States a direct way to sustain this work and carry it forward. Their support strengthens not only a physical space, but an evolving community in which knowledge is shared across disciplines, cultures, languages, and generations; artistic risks can be taken; and people who might otherwise be excluded can participate in cultural life.

At a moment when isolation and inequality increasingly shape our lives, the Free Music School understands interdependence as both an artistic practice and a way of living. Together, we are building a sustainable future grounded in access, experimentation, mutual care, and the belief that people can create more—and imagine more—when they have the space and support to do it together.

Photo: Rasheed Jalloul, April 22, 2023.