Local artist Kim Gregg painted the mural at Sparkle Cleaners on West Main Street, and the county formally unveiled it on Thursday.

“Just as down at the county clerk’s office, the Messages of Hope mural is very much a backdrop for marriage licenses, this one I can see as a background for senior pictures, family pictures, selfies and all that,” Wilson County Tourism Director Jason Johnson said.

A focus on the school system was intentional for Sparkle Cleaners co-owners Carl and Barbara McKinney, who sought out the Wilson County Murals Committee after being inspired by the other paintings around town.

“Barbara and I had an idea of what we kind of wanted to do,” Carl McKinney said. “But we were trying to decide what kind of backdrop we wanted for it. We talked about it a little bit, and I think we finally decided: let’s honor our school system.”

Lebanon High School’s colors figure prominently in the piece, and members of the LHS Marching Band and Catherine’s Orchestra for All showed up to perform at its unveiling. Johnson also invited Wilson County Schools Public Information Officer Bart Barker to speak about the mural.

“As much as 2020 has been able to throw punches just left and right at us, what’s about to be unveiled is something that’s positive,” Barker said. “It’s something that is community driven. It’s an initiative by PaintWilCo that wherever you go, these things will be popping up around the Wilson County community, so when you see them you can look at them and say, that’s my community. That’s where I’m from.”