USC News: Inaugural Arts + Health Symposium Highlights the Power of Art to Heal, Inspire and Support Well-Being
March 5, 2026
The Arts + Health Symposium on 2/24/2026 featuring the cast of "The Pitt" and USC professors and faculty.
USC scientists and artists — along with creative staff of The Pitt — shared groundbreaking interdisciplinary collaborations at the intersection of creativity and health care.
By Rachel B. Levin for USC News
Actor Noah Wyle has been playing doctors on television for much of his more than three-decade career, most recently as Michael “Robby” Robinavitch in the Emmy Award-winning HBO Max emergency-room drama, The Pitt.
On Monday, at the first-ever Arts + Health: A USC Arts Now Symposium, Wyle spoke about how witnessing the show’s resonance with its millions of viewers has sharpened his understanding of how art shapes our views on health and health care providers.
“I think people are tuning in to be reminded that there are dedicated, intelligent, compassionate, complex people that are out there, day in and day out, putting our broken pieces together, compartmentalizing their own trauma to do so — and oftentimes don’t get any of the credit,” said Wyle, who also serves as a writer, director and executive producer on the series.
His commentary went to the heart of the half-day symposium’s theme: “the power of the arts as a tool for medical knowledge, for healing, for wellness,” said Josh Kun, USC vice provost for the arts and professor and chair in cross-cultural communication at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.