Garland District gets Studio Ghibli makeover
Kadra Evans, the owner of Little Noodle restaurant and vice president of the Garland Business District has been a Garland local since 2006. She wanted to have some sort of mural on her building but wasn’t sure what to do.
That was until local artist Desmond Boston contacted her with the idea to do a massive Studio Ghibli mural.
“When Kadra and I started talking about the idea of doing a mural, being that her place is a noodle place, and being that she loves cartoon characters and I’m kind of inspired by my video games and my Japanese art, my manga stuff right now, it just kind of made sense,” Boston said. “I remember her saying ‘that is perfect,’ her eyes lit up and she was like, that’s perfect because she mentioned that the Ghibli Fest is happening at the Garland this year.”
This year marks the second time the historic Garland Theater had held a Ghibli Fest event where, over the course of months, the theater shows a series of Studio Ghibli films.
Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio, famous for films like the Oscar-winning “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “The Boy and the Heron.” The studio has garnered a cult-like following among people of all ages.
“When Tyler (Arnold), Jasmine (Barnes) and I were planning summer movies, Jasmine and I are big Ghibli fans, but Tyler is not; he’s never gotten into it,” said Garland Theater co-owner Chris Bovey. “And so it was Jasmine and I really kind of pushing for us to be able to go ahead and do these movies this summer and then see how they would do.”
Bovey said the community has responded eagerly to the Ghibli films, and Evans agreed.
“Even while Desmond was painting the mural, we’d have people stop by and look at it and then decide they were gonna go eat at the restaurant,” Evans said. “So, for us it’s been great.”
Boston said that kind of excitement from a community is a main motivation for his art.
“If the business owners can grab a little bit of color or a little bit of something that they can be proud of, just happy about something that puts more expression into their personal space, their workspace, than my missions accomplished,” Boston said.
The mural and the films have brought attention and Ghibli fans to the district, cementing the place of Ghibli films as part of Garland’s unique atmosphere.
“It’s a fantastic response depending on the movie,” Bovey said. “On the whole I would say every single week you have a whole lot of Ghibli fans coming out from Spokane, which is amazing.”
Those interested in seeing a Ghibli film at the Garland can catch “Princess Mononoke,” one of the studio’s first films but the last in Garland’s festival, at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and 4:30 p.m. Saturday.