LightHouse Holyoke to purchase Gateway City Arts

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – After nearly 12 years in the City of Holyoke, Gateway City Arts announced LightHouse Holyoke has agreed to purchase the complex.

Gateway City Arts, a three-building arts complex located at 92 Race Street in Holyoke, opened in 2012 and provided a venue for events theatre, concerts, a restaurant, and an art gallery. Last year, the founders announced it was for sale due to having a hard time bouncing back after the COVID-19 pandemic, closing the property for over a year.

In a news release sent to 22News on Monday, it was announced that Lighthouse Holyoke is working to purchase the complex. Since 2015 the educational organization has offered collaborative learning for students in grades 7-12 in six public districts. They focus on racial diversity and equity and students work with an advisor to create an individualized learning program.

The new facility will help expand programs including a maker space, music studio, and recording studio. LightHouse Holyoke plans to facilitate a Production Academy within the 40,000 square-foot facility two onsite performance spaces, the 100-person-capacity Divine Theater and the larger 500-person-capacity concert venue.

A public restaurant will also reopen that will be used with integrated courses and internships in all aspects of running a café, leading to paid work and future career opportunities. It is adjoined by an 8,000-square-foot facility which will continue to be used as a community maker space such as a woodshop and ceramic studio, hosting classes and workspaces.

Lori Divine, Co-Creator and Co-Owner of Gateway City Arts shared, “We couldn’t be happier to have LightHouse move into the space that we spent 12 years creating. Our mission was always to create a space for education, community, creativity, and inspiration. This was carried out in our classes, meetings, theater, food, music, and gatherings. LightHouse Holyoke shares so many of our values. When it was clear that GCA had to close, our hope was to find a buyer that would continue our vision merged with their own. We applaud what LightHouse brings to the lives of its students and their families and friends. We created a space for learning and sharing- LightHouse will continue that. Vitek and I are excited about the new chapter of creativity for LightHouse and for Holyoke.”

Catherine Gobron, Co-Founder and Executive Director for LightHouse Holyoke, responded, “Our mission statement begins with, ‘LightHouse is changing what school can be.’ Situating a school within the framework of a performing arts and concert venue is an incredible opportunity. We couldn’t imagine a more perfect location to expand our mission and vision than the state-of-the-art facility that Lori Divine and Vitek Kruta have built at 92 Race.”

Gobron explains, “At LightHouse the students are the curriculum, individually and collectively, and the school is the community. From inception, downtown Holyoke has been our campus as we support young people to learn outside the confines of traditional classrooms, inspired by personal interests in the context of the real world. We could not be more honored or more excited to take up the mantle from Lori and Vitek and carry forward the work of creating art and building community in Hampden County.”

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