JEN writes: >How about souls? >Does someone else have this feeling about things? Yes, at the risk of scandalizing my fundamentalist southern friends I will say that many museum objects have souls, and they whisper or cry out to you or try to frighten you; just looking at some objects can be a life-changing experience. Isn't this, too, part of the reason we are in this? And why we are so desperately trying to find ways of attuning our audiences to the souls of these things and therefore to the souls and stories of those who made them, be they intentional works of art or incidentally works of art, such as a set of African blacksmith's tools I recently rehoused. Rough, crude, utilitarian, yet beautiful with an unassuming grace of form that makes you damn the gloves. Anne Anne Lane Curatorial Assistant Museum of York County 4621 Mt. Gallant Road Rock Hill, SC 29732-9905 803-329-2121 ext 122 * [log in to unmask]