Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires are part of a special new space in Nashville’s Nissan Stadium. The singer-songwriter couple recently helped establish a room for fans with sensory sensitivities at the football stadium.
The Tennessee Titans, Nashville’s NFL team, unveiled the Isbell-Shires KultureCity Sensory Room at their home stadium on Tuesday (April 6). Isbell and Shires helped raise the money needed for the room, set up with KultureCity, an Alabama-based nonprofit focused on sensory accessibility and acceptance.
KultureCity’s board president is Dominique Wilkins, a retired NBA star and Isbell fan who befriended the musician via Twitter. Wilkins’ two daughters both have sensory sensitivities: one has spina bifida and the other has autism.
The Isbell-Shires KultureCity Sensory Room, the Tennessean explains, is a dark and quiet room with beanbag chairs, light and activity panels, bubble walls and artwork created by an artist with autism. Fans and their families can visit the room one at a time, for 10-15 minutes or so, during loud, bright and otherwise overstimulating moments.
“Amanda and I are happy to work alongside KultureCity to encourage acceptance and inclusion in public spaces like sporting events and businesses,” Isbell says in a statement to Nashville’s Fox 17. “Individuals with autism and specific sensory needs and their families should feel welcome wherever they go. The work of the KultureCity family is making that possible.”
The Isbell-Shires KultureCity Sensory Room is the first of its kind in a Nashville-area sports or entertainment venue, though the Tennessean reports that the NHL’s Nashville Predators are partnering with KultureCity to put a sensory room in at Bridgestone Arena soon.