28 | AUGUST 6 - 12, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
LAST CALL
Michelle May, co-founder of Juniper Rag, a virtual art magazine now being sold at Bedlam Books. ASHLEY GREEN/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
Michelle May, co-founder of Juniper Rag Veer Mudambi Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
Michelle May has hosted Cirque du Noir in Worcester for more than a decade — highlighting the city’s arts and culture scene. When the pandemic forced her to cancel two years in a row, she realized she wanted to do something more than once a year to expose people to aspects of Worcester culture
they wouldn’t otherwise fi nd. And so, Juniper Rag was born. May sat down with Last Call to discuss the goals and scope of the quarterly arts magazine. What is Juniper Rag’s mission statement and how did it come about? I wanted to expose artists all over, not just New England. The boiled-down mission is to show the culture that I see every day with these amazing artists to people all over. Besides that, I’m really inspired by the success that people have
in creating businesses from a creative perspective. It’s not an easy venture to create a business if you’re an artist and make enough money to live on. I have a lot of people in my world who have become designers and such — so I want to feature people that have turned their love of art into a very lucrative career. Artists can have a hard time marketing themselves so I want Juniper Rag to be a catalyst to market them — celebrate them.
Are you still going to be doing Cirque du Noir? Not sure this year with COVID, based on the fact that no one knows what’s going to happen in the fall. Kind of playing it by ear but I would like to do something. How did you assemble the Juniper Rag team? See MAY, Page 31
