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San Antonio has lost one of its most genuine lovers of the arts, Mike Casey. Casey was known for, among other things, how he held a job for years that didn't actually exist.
“Mike Casey was affectionately called the "Mayor of Southtown." A great friend of the arts, and a great friend to just all of us,” Angela Martinez said.
Martinez runs Slab Cinema, and five years ago, she assembled an art exhibition at Blue Star dedicated solely to Casey. It was his 80th birthday.
“I organized a birthday party for him, and there was a lot of different artists involved that made art dedicated to Mike, or inspired by Mike or was about Mike,” Martinez said.
The artwork spanned painted Caseys, tiled Caseys, photographed Caseys.
And like the many renditions of Mike Casey the artists created, they had just as many reasons to admire him.
“In years past, he was an attorney, and he owned a lot of homes in the King William area, and he started buying them back before King William was fixed up or gentrified," Martinez said. “And (he) was really important during the early days of Southtown. Just a dear person.”
Casey's brand of artistic support offset the pressure some artists felt about developing their craft.
“He was just a strong supporter of the arts, and he had the compound, a group of houses that he would offer at a very low rent to artists. And many, many artists came through there over the years,” Martinez said.
Inexpensive rent wasn’t a handout. It was a hand up. Not worrying about how to make rent gave artists the time and space needed to find their voices.
And wherever in Southtown he went, Casey cut a striking figure.
“Generally, you’d see him out and about town with a seersucker suit and a boater hat,” Martinez said. “Everybody was a friend of his. Everybody has a Mike Casey story.”
Mike Casey and husband Jose Chapa, a visual artist, lived in Mexico, where they celebrated Mike's 85th birthday.
There is no word yet on a memorial service.
