On a balmy Sunday evening this past August, an emcee hyped up hundreds of partygoers on the rooftop of the Brooklyn’s Children’s Museum. The crowd danced to booming soca music and sipped tropical cocktails under the glow of pink neon lights. “A time was hadddddd,” one person wrote under a video posted on Instagram.

The museum’s neighbors in this quiet, residential stretch of Crown Heights had a less exuberant reaction. They say the museum’s growing practice of renting out its rooftop terrace for adult parties with names like “Kocaine All White Renaissance” and “Rum and Music” means rattling windows, crying babies and thundering bass.

“ Some people joke that it’s an event space masquerading as a children’s museum, rather than the other way around,” said Taofeek Owoade, who lives directly across the street from the museum with his wife and 1-year-old daughter. “It’s really, really, really loud.”

The private parties mean something else, too: On certain days when the roof is rented out for events, the children’s museum shuts its doors to kids.

This past summer, the museum was closed for normal business on 12 days between May and August – all days when it was bought out for private events, according to calendars shared with the local block association. In 2025, the museum was either closed or shut down early for 11 days over the spring and summer.

“ You would be shocked how often I’m walking my dog, or I’m outside, and I see people going up to the museum and being like, ‘Wait, it’s closed?’” Owoade said.

Seth Wolfkot, the father of 4-year-old and 6-year-old daughters, said he was so frustrated by the closures and the noise issues that he canceled his family’s museum membership.

“This whole thing has definitely left a bad taste in my mouth,” he said. “It makes me not want to support them.”

Disagreements over how loud is too loud have divided neighborhoods across the city, and certainly Crown Heights, which has seen an influx of wealthier, whiter families. But locals say the fact that the noise is emanating from a children’s museum makes it especially egregious.

Atiba Edwards, the museum’s president and CEO, declined to be interviewed, but said in a statement the museum coordinates with police and the local community board to “ensure we are good neighbors.”

“Event rentals at Brooklyn Children’s Museum make our institution’s facilities accessible to other groups in the community and generate vital revenue the museum uses to help subsidize the approximately $1.5 million in free services we offer to children and families each year,” the statement said.

A financial boost

The children’s museum has been renting out space for decades, but in recent years the events appear to have become more frequent, more lucrative and – the neighbors say – a lot louder.

The museum’s federal tax filings show event rentals are a growing source of revenue. The nonprofit brought in nearly $440,000 in rental income in 2024, according to the most recent year the information is available. In 2023, the museum made more than $360,000 from event rentals. By comparison, the museum made about $95,000 from events in 2019.

Many local arts and culture institutions are turning to hosting private events to raise additional cash. The Brooklyn Museum, which announced last year it had to cut more than 40 employees because of budget deficits, rents out its lobby, interior courtyard and auditorium for events like weddings and corporate gatherings.

The rooftop terrace at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum has hosted a growing number of special events.

Brooklyn Children’s Museum

Recent improvements at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, which was founded in 1899 as the world’s first children’s museum, have made it especially popular for hosting summer dance parties. An L-shaped yellow roof designed by Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly was added in an $80 million renovation in 2008, and the museum upgraded its 20,000-square foot roof deck with a sculptural white overhang in 2017.

Neighbors said the opening of the improved roof deck marked a shift in the museum’s relationship with the community. The space hosts events for children like roller skating and outdoor art installations. But residents say it’s the private events hosted on the roof that get out of hand.

“ Some of those parties are very aggressive in their vibe with DJs shouting and firing up the partygoers, and there’s a fair amount of obscenity actually which then goes directly out into the entire neighborhood,” said Derrick Hilbertz, who lives down the block from the museum. “That’s something we think is inconsistent with the mission of a children’s museum.”

JP Edmund, a musician who’s lived on the park behind the museum for over 50 years, said he used to DJ on the building’s roof as a teenager in the 1980s. But he said the parties back then were nothing like what goes on now.

“It’s not a gentrification thing. It’s a sound thing. It’s a too-damn-loud thing,” Edmund said. “They’re trying to get that club feeling in an open-air scenario.”

Edmund said his frustration dates back to around 2019. He was taking care of his ailing mother at the time and the parties were drowning out the sound of their TV.

“ I vividly remember going over there and complaining and raising hell in the couple of years before she passed away to tell them, ‘Yo, you gotta do something. You gotta turn this down,’” he said. “It was no avail.”

Listings for recent events show they’re scheduled to end at 10 p.m., and neighbors said that schedule is generally respected. But they said the volume can be deafening up until then.

Residents along St. Mark’s Ave., just across from the museum, say noise complaints have gone nowhere.

Walter Wuthmann/Gothamist

Owoade said one night the music was so loud it caused a window in his apartment to fall out of its frame. On another night, the noise made his baby daughter so miserable, the family sought cover in a nearby cocktail bar where it was quieter.

“We were there with a less than 1-year-old at a bar, sitting there, waiting out the party before we can get her to go to bed,” Owoade said.

A search for a solution

Several people said their complaints have gone nowhere.

Owoade recalled a tense meeting organized by the block association last November. Edwards, the museum’s president, pushed back on the group’s characterization of the events as “loud” and ended by telling them that it “probably wasn’t going to get any better,” Owoade said. (Through a spokesperson, Edwards declined to be interviewed.)

Edwards’ appointment in 2023 was historic – he is the first Black man to run the organization in the institution’s history. He has spoken of wanting to make sure the museum remains connected and accessible to Crown Heights’ African-American and Caribbean communities.

But residents feel that mission has not extended to the museum’s immediate neighbors. “I don’t feel like I’m being included in the community when my concerns about music that have a negative impact on my life are being kind of dismissed,” Owoade said.

The local community board has had slightly better luck. When it organized a meeting with museum leadership and the local police precinct this summer to discuss noise complaints, the museum outlined several mitigation measures, like establishing a maximum sound level of 70 decibels, said Michelle George, the board’s district manager.

“The Community Board will continue to monitor the situation and remains committed to working with the Museum, the NYPD, and residents to address any ongoing concerns,” George said.

Edmund, the former DJ, said he’s not optimistic that next summer will be quieter.

“ Nobody’s trying to stop them from making money,” Edmund said. “But you have to take into consideration your neighborhood.”