LightHouse Holyoke

08/12/2026

What happens when the path you thought you were on disappears? At our August 5 Long Table dinner, people from different generations and backgrounds shared stories of disrupted careers—layoffs, an earthquake, illness, unexpected turns—and where those disruptions eventually led. The conversation moved from career pathways to a bigger question: what is education for when AI can do so much of the routine work? Here's what we heard, where LightHouse lands, and a link to our next set of conversations.

LightHouse (Holyoke, MA) is a competency-based middle and high school. Notes on career pathways in the age of AI, from our August Long Table.

07/29/2026

CULINARY ARTS — NEXT WEEK
Mornings 9:00–12:00 + lunch

Knife skills. Hot pans. Real deadlines.

Next week, teens trade the classroom for the De la Luz kitchen — cooking alongside our lead chef, learning the techniques that actually make food taste like something.

By the end of the week, they'll have real kitchen confidence, a portfolio of dishes they made with their own hands, and a taste (literally) of how the food world really works.

Spots are limited — grab yours: https://creatorscampus.org/programs/culinary-arts

07/24/2026

CULINARY ARTS — NEXT WEEK
Mornings 9:00–12:00 + lunch

Knife skills. Hot pans. Real deadlines.

Next week, teens get into it in the De la Luz commercial kitchen — cooking alongside our lead chef, learning the techniques that actually make food taste like something.

By the end of the week, they'll have real kitchen confidence, a portfolio of dishes they made with their own hands, and a taste (literally) of how the food world really works.

Couple spots left — grab one before they're gone:
https://creatorscampus.org/programs/culinary-arts

07/22/2026

This August, a small team of young filmmakers and filmmakers-to-be will spend a full week shooting on location across New England—moving through forests, rivers, coastlines, urban landscapes, and pollution sites to create a film about our relationship with the natural world.

Their finished footage will become part of a full-length film premiering this fall, projected behind a live orchestra and two choruses during A Passion for the Planet at the HOPE Center for the Arts.

The students’ names will appear in the credits. Their work will be experienced by a real audience.

August 10–14. Full days. Limited spaces.

Learn more and register:

https://creatorscampus.org/special/passion-for-the-planet-film-camp

07/22/2026

Something special happened around the table.

On July 8, eighteen people ranging in age from 24 to 90 gathered for our first Long Table dinner to talk about AI and education. They came from different professions, generations, backgrounds, and points of view—and brought a remarkable willingness to listen, reflect, and think together.

There was no panel and no lecture. Just a shared meal, two carefully chosen questions, and a two-minute sand timer that made space for every voice.

What unfolded was thoughtful, honest, surprising, and deeply human. The conversation moved beyond technology and into bigger questions about what makes learning meaningful, what schools are really for, and which human capacities we most want to protect and strengthen as AI changes the world around us.

We left feeling energized—not because we reached consensus, but because we experienced what can happen when people step outside their usual circles and gather in person to talk seriously about something that matters.

Read Catherine’s reflection on the first Long Table, and why we believe spaces like this matter:
https://www.lighthouseholyoke.org/the-first-long-table/

07/20/2026

We are thrilled to host teaching artist Kamil Peters this summer — contemporary metal artist, sculptor, and the instructor leading next week's Foam & Form workshop at Creators Campus.

Kamil works with young artists the way he'd work with any serious collaborator: real tools, real techniques, real materials.

Foam & Form is one of several Creators Campus workshops still open this summer for ages 13–19, including metal, glass, studio art, media, and more. Need-based scholarships available.

There's still time to make something real this summer.
See what's open and find your fit: https://creatorscampus.org/

07/20/2026

Two years ago this week we acquired a building. What we really acquired was room to imagine.

Since moving into our Race Street campus, we’ve reopened two performance venues, hosted more than 200 public events, launched new culinary and technical arts programs, created Creators Campus, and continued helping more than 100 young people each year choose a different way to school.

And we are nowhere near finished.

In this reflection, Catherine looks back at what has taken shape over the past two years—and forward toward what education, creativity, and community life might become next:

Two years after moving into our Holyoke campus, we reflect on community, AI, and what it means to build the future of education together.

07/17/2026

We hosted our very first Long Table dinner last week.

Eighteen people gathered around one table to explore a big question: How should education respond to AI?

We didn't solve it. We weren't trying to.

Instead, we created something that feels increasingly rare: a room full of curious people listening carefully, disagreeing respectfully, and thinking together.

The conversation reminded us that meaningful change rarely begins with sweeping declarations. More often, it starts around tables like this one.

Below please find some reflections on the evening—and why we think spaces like this matter now more than ever.

Reflections on the first Long Table dinner, where educators, artists, parents, and community members explored AI, education, and why curiosity, conversation, and community matter more than ever.

07/03/2026

Spots open next week! 🧶✨

Needle Felting starts Monday, July 6 at Creator’s Campus — a small-group, hands-on studio arts workshop for teens who want to make something soft, strange, colorful, and completely their own.

Students will learn the basics of sculpting with wool, playing with color, texture, and form as they create tiny creatures, objects, characters, or whatever else their imagination comes up with.

Come spend the morning making art with your hands.

Needle Felting / July 6 week / Mornings
Register at creatorscampus.org

07/02/2026

You don’t watch this one. You build it.

JazzFest Camp is a special project week for teens who want to learn what really happens behind the scenes of a major festival.

Students will work alongside the Springfield Jazz & Roots Festival production team on site planning, stage builds, sound, lighting, vendor coordination, and artist hospitality — then have the chance to work backstage during the festival itself.

This is real production work, not a simulation.

Week of July 6
Small cohort · limited spots
$249/week. Need-based scholarships available.
Friday evening + Saturday festival opportunities included

Register: creatorscampus.org/special/jazzfest-camp