greenfield: simon rodia's house burned down in a fire. nobody knows quite how it started. only thing left was the foundation. curtis tann started conducting art classes on the foundation of the house. they put a tarp over the remains to more or less shield everything, and then artists would kind of volunteer. they'd kind of drop in and help teach classes there. there was nothing very formal about it at all. man: curtis tann, he was very sensitive to the creative spirits of other artists. he was a good mentor in relationship to how artists should be treated and how artists should conduct themselves in that kind of position. purifoy: he came from karamu house. i think calling ourselves community artists harks back to the beginning of art in cleveland at the karamu house, where they were practicing community art for years. community art has a certain belief system. it doesn't believe in art for art's sake. so you can imagine the problem that one would have in an elite community like los angeles with this kind of belief system, and yet we were consistent with our idea. greenfi