With over a decade of experience in the museum and disability fields, Cindy VandenBosch founded Turnstile Tours as one of New York State's first benefit corporations to create and offer interactive and content-based experiences that foster engagement and interaction within and across communities in partnership with non-profit organizations in the neighborhoods of New York City.
Currently, the company conducts original research and operates tours about people and places underrepresented in the public record, including the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn Army Terminal, public markets in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and street vendors in New York City.
Originally from a suburb of Flint, Michigan, Cindy studied anthropology at the University of Michigan and conducted her thesis research in Siberia and the Russian Far East, studying traditional culture of local ethnic groups in the post-Soviet period.
Since moving to New York more than a decade ago, Cindy has gained extensive experience in the museum field; for several years managed tour implementation, quality, and accessibility at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum for over 100,000 visitors annually. She has also worked in a variety of capacities with the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Singapore Tourism Board, the Museum at Eldridge Street, and many other cultural organizations.
From 2012 to 2015, she was co-chair of the Museum Access Consortium, a volunteer-based association dedicated to increasing inclusive accessibility at cultural institutions for people with disabilities, and oversaw a multi-year project dedicated to refining best practices for museums to more effectively engage people with autism and their caregivers.
Cindy was a co-founder of Urban Oyster, a company that specializes in food and beverage-themed tours, and formerly designed field-based cultural programming across New York City for K-8th graders who are blind or have low vision about the geography and history of New York City for City Access New York.
She currently serves on the Tourism and Hospitality Executive Committee of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and is a board member of Citizens Union, a good government organization in New York City and State.
I run a tour company in New York City that has a social mission and we are interested in connecting with other professionals in the travel industry.
Italy and Cambodia - for different reasons!
Patagonia
Educator at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Community and economic development and tourism & the intersection of tours and tech
Humanity, Humility, Perspective