KNOXVILLE—The University of Tennessee System will put its mark along Interstate 40 in Crossville with its 15th mural of the “Everywhere You Look, UT” mural campaign.
Beginning Friday, between Exits 317 and 318 in Cumberland County, orange and white paint will decorate a barn on the farm owned by Janson and Nancy McClanahan. When completed, the 72-foot-long mural will be visible to 35,000 travelers per day on I-40.
For the McClanahans, the mural continues the family’s long ties with UT.
The farm came into the family when Claude and Bernice Little bought the 65 acres in Cumberland County in 1948. Claude earned his master’s degree from UT Knoxville in 1947 before teaching agriculture and serving as a Future Farmers of America (FFA) advisor for 42 years. Bernice taught elementary school while the couple also raised their family, including their daughter Nancy, along with strawberries, tobacco and polled Hereford cattle. Now, Janson and Nancy raise registered polled Hereford cattle. Janson also works as a pharmacist in Crossville and Nancy is a retired school teacher. Their son Matthew and his wife, Lauren, graduated from UT College of Law in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and practice law. Lauren also graduated from UT Martin in 2016. Janson and Nancy’s other son Colton is a financial officer for Farm Credit Mid-America. His wife, Rachel, graduated from UT Martin in 2016 with her bachelor’s degree and from UT Knoxville in 2018 with her master’s degree. She is an agriculture teacher and FFA advisor at Oakland High School.
From education to support from the UT Research Station in Crossville to UT’s performance bull sales, the McClanahan family has relied on UT.
“This is a way we can give back to the university that has been able to help my family through education and farming,” Nancy and Janson said about joining the mural project.
With a goal to paint a mural in each of Tennessee’s 95 counties, UT has completed 14 murals since its launch in 2018. Murals have been painted in Shelby, Weakley, Knox, Greene, Sullivan, Meigs, Houston, Roane, Trousdale, Gibson, Grainger, Sumner, Lincoln and Giles counties. Each mural helps to tell the story of UT’s presence across the state.
FameYah Media partners with muralist Kim Radford to support the UT mural campaign. Radford, a Nashville native who transitioned from art teacher to full-time artist in 2013, has painted a 30-foot, 75th Dolly Parton Birthday Mural in Nashville and a 50-foot, This Girl Can 19th Amendment Mural in Huntsville, Alabama.
To learn more about the UT campaign, each location and to nominate a canvas for use, visit https://everywhere.tennessee.edu/murals/.
The University of Tennessee is a statewide system of higher education with campuses in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Martin and Memphis; the UT Space Institute in Tullahoma; the UT Institute of Agriculture with a presence in every Tennessee county; and the statewide Institute for Public Service. The UT system manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory through its UT-Battelle partnership; enrolls about 50,000 students statewide; produces about 10,000 new graduates every year; and represents more than 400,000 alumni around the world.