Dear Claudia: In the December 1994 issue of Hand to Hand, the quarterly publivation of the Association of Youth Museums, Marjorie Lefcowitz Schwarzer, formerly of Chicao Children's Museum, wrote an excellent article entitled "Helping Visitors in Potent Exhibits." It focused on handling of difficult topics like AIDS, homelessness and family violence in children's museum exhibits. If you want a copy, let me know and I'll send it to you. A number of children's museums have tackled difficult subjects and, given their audience, have been particularly scrupulous about how the message is conveyed. The Children's Museum in Boston did a well-received death and dying exhibit some time ago. Obviously the Holocaust Museum is an excellent source of expertise on the subject of the successful handling of difficult topics. Kathryn Hill, director of visitors services there, also write a good article in Hand to Hand on how they trained their staff to work with visitors in the museum. Elaine Gurian, formerly on staff there, is available on this network and is also great source of information on the subject. Mary Maher, editor Hand to Hand 609 East Market Street, Siote 102A Charlottesville, VA 22902 804 295-7603 fax 804 295-5045