With baton in hand, Jeff Reed has directed an orchestra of 60 or more instrumentalists and taken the stage at the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center with artists like Kenny Rogers and B.J. Thomas.

The Orchestra Kentucky conductor is now looking to make beautiful music of a different sort, hoping to involve many more people than the five dozen or so musicians and the hundreds who buy tickets for performances at SKyPAC.

“My plan is to make SKyPAC more of a community center than just a performing arts center,” said Reed, who was installed last year as president and CEO of the Arts of Southern Kentucky organization that grew out of a merger of the Warren County-owned SKyPAC and Orchestra Kentucky. “It’s the taxpayers’ building. They should be able to use it.”

Reed only began his new administrative role last November, but he is already taking steps to implement his vision.

Through a newly formed education committee headed by retired music teacher and Orchestra Kentucky oboist Pam Thurman, ASK has come up with new programs to involve local residents from children to senior citizens.

Thurman has put together the Southern Kentucky Junior Orff Ensemble for youngsters 10 to 12 years old, scheduling morning and afternoon sessions for camps to be held at SKyPAC on July 12-16 and July 19-23.

Thanks to grant funding and a loan of instruments from Jody Richards Elementary School, camp participants will receive 20 hours of instruction on the Orff xylophones.

Registration for the SKY JOE camp is $100, but Reed said scholarships are available.

“Very few schools have these ensembles because of the expense,” Reed said. “We’ve been able to start purchasing some instruments. We want this camp to serve children of all socioeconomic levels.”

The ASK education committee has also started what’s being called the Golden Chorale, a choral group made up of local residents 60 and over.

“It will provide camaraderie and service to the community,” Thurman said of the Golden Chorale. “The mission will be to go into nursing homes and other places and sing folk songs and patriotic songs.”

Golden Chorale members pay a $50 annual fee to participate in the group, which Reed said will meet a need in the community.

“I’ve always had a heart for reaching senior adults,” Reed said. “This gives them an opportunity to still make music. It’s timely because church choirs are disappearing. Some of the biggest churches in town don’t have choirs. This is a way for them to keep singing.”

Reed isn’t ending his outreach to the community with the xylophone camp and the Golden Chorale. He has worked with Bowling Green’s Fountain Square Players, allowing the group to use SKyPAC’s 200-seat Carol Wedge Studio Theater July 2-3 for performances of “United! Words for the Nation.”

Fountain Square Players President Mitchell Berman said the theater group already has another performance scheduled for the small SKyPAC venue. Auditions will be next week for the comedy “Sick in the Head,” with performances scheduled Sept. 17-19.

“Jeff Reed reached out to see if we would be interested in utilizing the Carol Wedge theater,” Berman said. “It’s a nice opportunity to build some bridges with the broader arts community.

“We’re excited to develop this partnership and perhaps work our way to the main stage, probably next year.”

Other local groups could be working their way to SKyPAC’s main stage under a program called “Curtains Up!” that Reed has started as an outreach to area schools.

SKyPAC, which got a $750,000 cash infusion from Warren Fiscal Court to get the merged ASK organization established, is offering K-12 schools in the 10-county region an opportunity to apply for free use of either the 1,700-seat Rita & Jim Scott Concert Hall or the Wedge theater.

“We’ll be reaching out to schools in the area,” Reed said. “If the dates are available, they can come in free of charge if there are no added expenses to SKyPAC.”

Reed also envisions Western Kentucky University using SKyPAC for some theatrical or musical performances.

“My dream is that something is going on at SKyPAC every night,” Reed said. “We need to start thinking about SKyPAC as a welcoming place.

“People need to fall in love with SKyPAC.”