The Upper Jay Art Center (UJAC) was founded by Scott and Byron Renderer in 2005 as a place to enjoy music, theater, and visual art. In 2008, it incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and, with a wink and a nod the brothers, upholsterers by trade, named the performance space the Recovery Lounge. Over the past decade, the Lounge has become an essential gathering place in the Ausable River valley, bringing an eclectic array of professional musicians to this rural corner of the northeast Adirondacks throughout the year and staging plays by classic and contemporary playwrights, acted by an ever expanding troupe of local talent. UJAC also hosts play and poetry readings, performance art, dance, art exhibits, and the CA+MP Residency Program. All events are affordable and many are free. Guests can expect a relaxed environment with warm acoustics, comfortable vintage furniture, and a diverse audience of all ages.

CA+MP Artist Residency Program
CA+MP – creative arts + multidisciplinary performance – is the emergent artist-in-residence program at the Upper Jay Art Center. We host artists in all disciplines for periods of 1-4 weeks, offering time and creative freedom within our unique and historic space to create, dream, perform, and explore.

Unlike many residency programs, our building operates like a living museum – likened to a Joseph Cornell box – and presents a plethora of objects, furniture, nooks and crannies for residents to explore and re-make anew, as well as a full live production suite (light and sound) and the sometimes raging waters of the Ausable River right outside the door. Residents can expect a loose, permissive vibe, as well as a curious and engaged local community with which to share their work.

Our goal is for these residencies to provide support to artists in any stage of their creative process, as well as opportunities to engage in cultural and cross-cultural conversations with local audiences, further challenging and growing our collective understanding of what connects (and divides) us, and ultimately, what it is to be in community with each other.

We accommodate both emerging and established artists working in visual disciplines (2D, 3D, mixed & digital media), film, writing (fiction, non-fiction, hybrid/new genres), music (performance, songwriting, recording), movement and dance, theater, performance art, as well as multidisciplinary artists of all stripes.

The CA+MP Artist Residency Program operates out of the Upper Jay Art Center (UJAC) – also known as the Recovery Lounge – and is located in Upper Jay, NY, in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. Approximately 5 hours due north of NYC by car, the Adirondacks (a state park) is a large expanse of 6 million acres, 3 million of which are designated as "forever wild" forestland. Home to many small but thriving communities, Upper Jay is a small sleepy town within 20 minutes of the more bustling and international tourist mecca Lake Placid (known for hosting the 1932 & 1980 Winter Olympic Games), an array of active local farms, many pristine rivers and lakes, and most of the High Peaks, a collection of the state's highest 46 mountains that draw hikers and explorers year round. For the past century and beyond, the Adirondacks have also been a destination for artists and writers alike – a place to retreat to make their work amidst wild natural surrounds. At CA+MP, residents live and work inside "the Building" that houses UJAC, a turn-of-the-century former Model-T assembly factory perched on the edge of the Ausable River. Residents are housed inside a shared apartment and work on-site in various studio and performance sites throughout the space.