Basket Beat is an entity, a project and a methodology with which they accompany people in their personal growth, especially those with fewer opportunities, through the creation and learning of music in groups and with basketballs.
One of the most powerful examples of how sound, rhythm, music, and percussion can contribute to positive change is Basket Beat from Barcelona. Basket Beat is a participatory music project, and working methodology, developed by Josep Maria Aragay, that uses basketballs as percussion instruments to help young people in disadvantaged situations or in closed institutions such as prisons, with their personal development and critical thinking skills.
Through workshop formats, Basket Beat facilitate valuable group processes where participants learn to trust each other and feel responsible for one another – because they are all equally responsible for keeping the rhythm alive. With their combination of social-artistic work, sound, rhythm, beats and group work, Basket Beat show how making music together can build bridges between people from many different contexts.
The project was born in 2009 from the hand of Josep Mª Aragay who, after 3 years working in Barcelona, embarked on a journey with the desire to learn from other experiences as well as disseminate and evaluate the methodology he had developed. He visited 120 community arts projects and conducted more than 75 workshops and talks that have taken Basketbeat to Britain, France, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Brazil, South Africa, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Iran and Kosovo.
The raison d’être of Basketbeat is to carry out socio-educational workshops in schools, institutes, prisons, public facilities, etc. The content they generate during this workshops leads to research and publications as well as the providing of training for students and professionals on the social use of the arts and the Basketbeat methodology. Basketbeat have also created a basketball orchestra that offers career opportunities for young people. They also hold workshops with companies to offer Team Building sessions.