LightHouse Holyoke, an accredited middle and high school for self-directed learning, announces a community-wide Open House celebration at its newly acquired campus, the former Gateway City Arts complex at 92 Race Street. The event, scheduled for Thursday, November 14 from 5:00-8:00 PM, will showcase the transformed 40,000-square-foot facility and feature a free concert by Grammy-nominated Afro-Rican Jazz band leader, William Cepeda.

The historic three-building complex, which LightHouse purchased in July, has already undergone extensive renovations, with much more in the works. The campus features two performance venues – the intimate De la Luz Divine theater and the 500-person capacity De la Luz Soundstage – along with a commercial kitchen, café, and an 8,000-sq-ft maker-space-to-be.

“This facility offers an extraordinary opportunity to expand our vision of what school can be,” says Catherine Gobron, co-founder and executive director. “By integrating education with public spaces for arts, music, and making, we’re creating opportunities for genuine connections across diverse communities, breaking down traditional barriers between school and life, and building a place where social justice and transformative learning happen naturally through daily interactions.”

Through the new De la Luz Technical Arts Institute, LightHouse is now offering vocational tracks in sound and lighting engineering and live event production, unprecedented at the high school level. A culinary arts track will launch in January 2025 in conjunction with the reopening of the onsite café, while carpentry and metalworking programs are currently in development.

The Open House will include guided tours, demonstrations, and presentations about LightHouse’s innovative educational programs, and The Carolyn Dufraine Trio will be showcasing in De la Luz Divine. The café will be open featuring local chef, Neftalí Duran. The evening culminates with a free concert at 7:00 PM featuring William Cepeda, a cultural icon of Puerto Rico known for pioneering Afro-Rican Jazz in the larger De la Luz Soundstage.

Thanks to generous sponsors including Bueno y Sano, People’s Bank, Lumber Dog, Bresnahan Insurance, and Greenfield Northampton Cooperative Bank, both the Open House and concert are free to attend. While admission is complimentary, donations are welcome to support LightHouse’s ongoing renovation and development efforts. To date, the organization has raised $1.6M of their $3M goal for facility improvements.