About Us
Welcome to Opus
We started out in 2006 hosting music and poetry events around Sheffield, but over the years we've evolved into the organisation we are now – a worker-owned company committed to finding systemic responses to the complex problems we face in Sheffield, in the UK, and around the world.
Take a look at our journey so far…
2006
Opus begins life hosting live music shows and poetry gigs in Sheffield
2008
We set up Now Then magazine as a platform for citizen journalism, art, culture and politics
2009
Spoken word project Wordlife becomes part of Opus
2011-13
We run the Opus Acoustics live gig series at venues across the city
2012-14
We work with Jonny Douglas and Mark Hobson on poster cylinder project Fact Totem, including a twelve month pilot of the cylinder on Devonshire Green
2012-14
We publish Now Then Manchester with the work of a small team on the other side of the Pennines
2014
Now Then distributes free ‘flexi-disc’ vinyl to celebrate launch of local record label CPU
2015
We host the first edition of Festival of Debate, now the UK's largest grassroots politics festival
2016
Word Life publishes a poetry anthology marking its tenth birthday
2017
We set up the UBI Lab Network with Citizen Network Research, now one of the world’s biggest grassroots campaigns for a Universal Basic Income
2021
We join Citizen Network to support the founding of the Neighbourhood Democracy Movement
2021
We collaborate on Climate25, a project focused on planetary-scale responses to climate breakdown, which evolves into Foundations Earth
2021
We collaborate on the South Yorkshire Cultural Engagement report with Fourth Street and SYMCA
2022
We begin hosting the People's Newsroom project
2023
We embark on an exciting new project with Citizen Network, Dark Matter Labs and many others, exploring the potential for new systems in Sheffield
2024
The tenth edition of our annual Festival of Debate programme ran from 16 April - 25 May, with over 5000 people attending across a programme of 68 events.
History of Opus
2008
Opus is established as a not-for-profit social enterprise with a 'one member, one vote' model and a 1:1 pay ratio (which we have to this day)
2008
We start Opus Distribution, a postering and flyering service from the ashes of early Opus project Bad Monkey
2009-14
We host the Community Stage at grassroots festival Peace in the Park
2012-18
Abbeydale Brewery produce a series of beers for Now Then and Festival of Debate
2013
We screen Ken Loach’s The Spirit of ‘45 as part of Sheffield Doc/Fest
2014
We create Fairness on the 83 for the Festival of the Mind, a video project exploring inequality in Sheffield
Credit: Nathan Gibson
2014
We launch the Now Then App to connect people in Sheffield with local independent traders
2016
Now Then celebrates its 100th issue
2016-17
We collaborate on the city-wide Making Sheffield Fairer campaign with Sheffield Council
2018
Now Then celebrates ten years in print
2020
At the start of the pandemic Now Then moves to online-only, with the launch of a new website
2021
We establish film production company Opus Films
2022
Inspired by the idea of ‘rights of nature’, we initiate the River Dôn Project
2022
We work with Compassionate Sheffield on Stories from the Pandemic, recording and reflecting on lived experiences of Covid-19
2023
We work with Dark Matter Labs on the creation of the Sheffield City Goals
Credit: Adva Photography