Now a Stufano lecture on gardening attracts an audience of 500. Stufano, Wave Hill's director of horticulture, says he was lucky to have as his collaborator John Nally, a Missouri printmaker whom he hired in 1979. Stufano and Nally, who died in 1988, shared a love of both art and gardening and a desire to combine the two in imaginative ways. Typical of their approach was a narrowing of garden paths to allow foliage and flowers to spill onto the cobblestones. But the narrowing down immerses you.
People develop a respect for the plants on the paths.
They will not step on them. Seasonal art programs encourage children and their families to paint, make prints and collages, and sculpt with paper, clay, mud, twigs, wire, and plaster. Last year, under the supervision of Stufano's right-hand man, assistant director of horticulture John Emmanuel, the staff planted pumpkins, squashes, and other gourds on a weedy hillside near the river, turning it into an autumn playground of colors and shapes. Stufano has scattered large, single wooden chairs across the property so that sinking into one of them to watch boats move along the river or the sun set over the Palisades would be a perfect antidote to the city's noise, hassle, and pavement. In fact, it's a great thing for anyone to be able to have their own chair in a public place.