Opolis Blog is Live
Sarah Reid getting ready for soundcheck.
Welcome to the Opolis blog! We will be sharing updates from the space and what we’ve got going on here!
In late November we received notice that we were selected among 31 venues that applied for the Live Music Society’s Toolbox grant. We applied in the Fall and did not expect to receive word about it until much later on. We are grateful for the opportunity and are excited to share updates as we go through the grant period starting this month and wanted to share a general overview of the plans we have for the Opolis in the coming months.
With the support of the Live Music Society, we will be updating some of our stage equipment and incorporating more modular visual components within the space. The face of our building will also be getting some love so that we can be more visible from the street. It’s no secret we’re one of kind for live music in downtown Norman, and we want more people to find us!
Another special treat the grant affords us is the creation of a new live session series that will begin in the Spring. Opolis Sessions will host spotlight artists and document the performance using video and audio recording in front of a live audience. We expect this series to be not only an intimate experience for our performers, live attendants, and future viewers, but a way to collaborate and elevate the musicians in our community to get more recognition and experience in the industry.
Artists selected for this series will receive pay and use of the content for their portfolios. We will have more announcements about this series very soon.
A gift from Brad Hicks of Visions of Afterlife.
It has been one hell of a year and there’s been so much to reflect on what it means to be a small music venue in Oklahoma. We received a generous mention in this article by Brett Fieldcamp, who described us as weirdos and left field artists, and it’s true! The majority of us in the co-op all have varying degrees of creative experience that informs and generates the environment we have cultivated in downtown Norman over the last year. Even more so, it’s the people that come to our shows, our regulars, and our friends that make the place what it is. There’s still plenty of room for growth and this first year taught us all so much about ourselves, the industry, and our community. The waves of the pandemic and the ongoing economic recovery is being felt by everyone, our venue is no different. The torch having now passed almost one full year, we recognize that there are still many challenges ahead of us, but there is nothing that drives us more than witnessing all the kind folks coming together for the love of music every single week and preserving the Opolis as an accessible all ages third space in the Oklahoma City metro.
Ethan, Addy, and Laine discussing amps on the stage.
We have successfully hosted over 150+ shows and events throughout 2023, and as we enter 2024 we are gearing up to bring even more experimental and exploratory experiences in live music. We wouldn’t be here without the support we received from all of you during fundraising in 2022 and are grateful to be part of a community that shares the same belief that self expression is of critical importance to the health of a city.
Our hours have changed and we are now open Wednesday to Saturday starting at 4PM. This update comes with the changing needs of our kitchen and the growth of food orders in the space. Buying food from us means we preserve our all ages status, and we are so excited that we are seeing growth in this area of the business! Our head chef Sarah Reid has worked hard to preserve the original Opolis menu on top of experimenting with newer food items and desserts throughout 2023. We can’t wait to see how things change this year. This additional day for food prep means there’s going to be so much more room for new vegan creations!
That’s all for now, stop by and grab a bite from our vegan kitchen some time and check out our calendar to see our upcoming events!
Until next time!
-Julius