Conversationalist: Amanda Benchley

Amanda Benchley

Journalist , filmmaker, and co-author

Amanda has spent her professional life in media and storytelling. A graduate of the Peck School and Kent Place, she majored in art history and archaeology at Princeton University. Starting in public relations at Random House, she completed the CHRISTIE’s Fine and Decorative Arts program in London. Returning to NYC, Amanda researched and produced documentaries for A&E’s Biography Series and the History Channel.  Several short videos on the American Presidents she produced are still on exhibit at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institute.  She earned a Master’s at Columbia Journalism School, going on to publish articles for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Observer and the Huffington Post. In 2015, Amanda combined her dual interests in art and personal narratives co-authoring Artists Living with Art, a book about artists’ personal art collections. In Our Shoes, Our Selves: 40 Women, 40 Stories, 40 Pairs of Shoes (2019), she interviewed 40 of today’s most inspiring women, using favorite pairs of shoes as storytelling vehicles. Her latest book, also on contemporary art and entitled OPEN STUDIO, Do it Yourself Projects by Contemporary Artists, includes projects exclusively created for the book by some of the world’s most famous artists. 

< See all Conversationalists