DIY Space Silent Barn Violently Trashed, Robbed

Interior of Silent Barn (prior to robbery)

Silent Barn (located in Ridgewood, Queens on the border of Bushwick) needs your help, and not just to clean the bathroom. The venue has spent seven years accumulating equipment, tools, and artwork to create a DIY space in the community, but over the weekend they were robbed. They say $15,000 worth of audio equipment is gone, along with personal belongings, adding:

"The violence to the space is almost as upsetting as the theft. Doors were ripped off of hinges, furniture ripped to shreds, and everything in the space strewn about in a sea of debris... we’re still reeling with what this means for our own lives and the future of the space. If you would like to find out what you can do, email silentbarn@gmail.com. We need your help to continue."

We've contacted the space's owners to find out the status of things, and to get more details on the robbery—it's unclear if the space is actually legal, so it's possible the police weren't notified. We'll update when we hear back.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on July 19, 2011 1:18 PM

Comments [rss]

babycastles

Silent Barn has a fundraising page for a new venue where the old one once was...
http://www.kickstarter.com/pro...

Denver Hughes

Great venue, this is really horrible... between this and Coco66, it's been an awful week for the music scene in brooklyn.

Guest

Did you miss the fact that this was in Queens?

Trustafarian

Ridgewood = Brooklyn spillover, and part of the same "scene"

Guest

Ah. I just figured it was more of the only-Brooklyn-matters mentality.

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gambalore

It is really quite literally on the borough border (one side of the street is Brooklyn, the side with Silent Barn is Queens) so it's not hard to see why most people think of it as being in Bushwick anyway.

Guest

Ah. Well, that makes sense.

ganghiscon

You mean burglarized, not robbed.

Eric PH

What is it with people not knowing the difference between robbed and burglarized?

Guest

That place cannot be legal. It's really cool though, I hope they do make a kickstarter or set up a paypal account for donations. Judging by the major attention this has received I'm thinking they could make a nice comeback, better than before.

J_Temperance

Oh, they should get in touch with another DIY performance space, Shea Stadium out in Bushwick. They just got a bunch of new audio gear, tools, and personal belongings. They can probably spare they're old gear, tools, and personal belongings.