Two years ago this week, LightWorks Collective took ownership of 92–114 Race Street in downtown Holyoke.
We thought we had acquired a building.
Looking back, I think what we really acquired was room to imagine.
As our physical space has expanded, so has our sense of what is possible. It turns out that vision grows to fill the space it's given.
In just two years we've reopened the former Gateway City Arts venues as De la Luz Soundstage and De la Luz Divine Theater, hosted more than 200 public events, launched a fresh lunch program alongside a culinary workforce training program, created the De la Luz Technical Arts Institute to hire and train young people working in professional live events, built a bike shop with a woodshop and ceramics studio close behind, opened an intimate vinyl listening room, launched Creators Campus, and gathered around the first Long Table for a new series of community conversations.
Most importantly, we've continued supporting more than 100 young people each year in choosing a new way to school. This spring we celebrated another graduating class heading in every direction imaginable—including UMass Amherst, UConn, the University of Vermont, Westfield State, Wheaton, Sarah Lawrence, Simmons, and Smith.
If anyone is still wondering whether a young person can choose a nontraditional path and go on to thrive at a highly selective four-year college, I hope we can finally put that question to rest.
We are incredibly proud of our young people—and deeply grateful to everyone who has helped make all of this possible.
And then, in the very same breath, my mind jumps to everything that hasn't happened yet.
We still need a new boiler. Expanded HVAC for the venues. New windows on the upper floors. (The basement and first floor are done!) Extending after-school programming is at the top of the list (coming this fall!). Growing food in a greenhouse on the roof—and creating a Montessori-inspired coworking space for parents and young children—are still in the dream stage.
Our 40,000-square-foot campus in Holyoke still has plenty of room for dreaming.
At LightWorks, we've often said our vision is to become a reflection of the world we want to see—a world where people learn with each other, from each other, and for each other.
Two years ago, that felt like an aspiration.
Today, I can begin to see it taking shape.
We are far from finished.
But we have most certainly begun.
We're living through a moment of extraordinary change. Artificial intelligence is reshaping education, work, and creativity faster than any of us can fully predict.
I don't think our task is simply to hold on.
I think it's to hold on to each other.
Our stake in the ground is clear. We intend to embrace AI—not uncritically, but thoughtfully—so that young people learn to use these powerful new tools wisely rather than be used by them.
At the very same time, we're doubling down on the human capacities that have been at the heart of our work all along: curiosity, communication across difference, collaboration, creativity, leadership, empathy, and critical thinking. These are not new priorities in response to AI and education. They are woven into our competency-based graduation requirements and have been the foundation of our work for more than a decade. AI hasn't changed what we believe young people need—it has made those capacities even more essential.
It is a remarkable time to be alive.
Because of your belief in this work, we were able to secure this extraordinary building. Now comes the even more exciting part: filling it with people, ideas, conversations, performances, learning, work, healing, growth, and community.
This is work that can only be done together.
Whether your passion is education, the arts, workforce development, civic conversation, or simply imagining what comes next, there is a place for you here.
Reach out.
We can't wait to build what comes next—with you.