The 12th Annual Cam Busch Endowed Art for Health Lecture Series will feature award winning actress and lecturer Megan Cole on Thursday, March 29, from 6-8 p.m., at the Hunter Museum of American Art.
An award-winning actor of stage and screen and renowned lecturer in the halls of both Arts and Sciences, Ms. Cole combines these forms to facilitate groups in the skills of empathic communication. Known both for her ground-breaking portrayal of Dr. Vivian Bearing in the play "Wit" and for her work at medical teaching hospitals, Megan is a resource to doctors and patients alike.
In 2000, after performing the play “Wit” at Houston’s Alley Theater, Megan, at the request of the directors of University of Texas/Houston Health Science Center, began to develop a course that proposed applying various skills from the profession of theater to the practice of medicine. Creating this course led Megan to work in other areas of health care education: the history of medicine, the arts and medicine, the uses of spirituality in medicine, the role of compassion in nursing, doctoring, social work, and the care of the soul. And, most significantly, she developed her dramatized lecture version of the play Wit - entitled The Wisdom of "Wit".
So while she continues her stage and screen work, Megan Cole continues also to explore the ways in which patient care and end-of-life care can benefit from a deepened sense of skilled compassion. The title of the Megan Cole’s lecture for the Cam Busch series is entitled: Seeing Out of the Corner of the Eye: Bringing the Arts to Healthcare.
Ms. Cole said, “I will speak about why the arts are important in health care and then show dramatic examples of each point, encouraging a mutually supportive juncture between medicine and the arts.”
In addition to Megan’s extensive onstage work, television credits include Seinfeld, ER, The Practice, Las Vegas, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, L.A.Law and Northern Exposure. The purpose of the Cam Busch Endowed Arts for Health Lecture Series is to acquaint the community with the importance of art in the healing process. “Through this series we have had the privilege of hosting well-known artists, musicians, poets, performing artists and academics from around the country,” said Jennifer Nicely, foundation president for Memorial Health Care System. “Each has brought his own unique message to help us better understand the role of the Arts in health care.” Program participants are invited to arrive early and explore the Hunter Museum.
Tickets are $25 per person, $15 for students. Tickets can be purchased at the evening of the event for $35, however we anticipate the event will sell out. Light hors d’oeuvres will be served and a cash bar offered. To purchase tickets, please call 495-4438.