Joanna McCollum Learner

Joanna McCollum Learner, 86, passed away peacefully on December 5 at Centrica Rose Arbor Place, surrounded by family and friends. A memorial service will be held January 10, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., at the Battle Creek Art Center, 265 E Emmett St.

Born in Denver, Colorado, in 1939, Joanna McCollum Feeley was the second of four children of Mildred and John Feeley. Her earliest years were spent in a rustic 19th-century log cabin near Conifer, Colorado—without running water or electricity—on a beloved 60-acre mountain retreat that remains a cherished family gathering place. Her family later lived in New Hampshire, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, and ultimately Texas, where Joanna graduated from Jefferson High School in San Antonio. As a teenager, she helped raise her younger brothers, Malcolm and Francis, following the early deaths of their parents.

Joanna studied visual arts and art education at Texas Women’s University in Denton. After graduating, she taught art in San Antonio public schools and met her future husband, Robert, while taking ceramics classes at the McNay Art Institute. Their first child, Rebecca, was born in 1962. In 1965, the family moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where Bob became Education Director of the Nashville Children’s Museum.

In Nashville, Joanna emerged as an important figure in the local arts scene. She developed a following for her distinctive copper enamels, earning recognition in national art publications. She also taught art and helped design the art curriculum for the Peabody Demonstration School. Joanna and Bob welcomed their second child, Neal, in 1966, and the family spent many weekends camping, hiking in the Smoky Mountains, and rockhounding across the region.

The family moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1971 when Bob became director of the Kingman Museum of Natural History. Joanna taught jewelry-making and art at the Battle Creek Art Center and Kellogg Community College, and helped organize the Art Goes to School and Art Train programs. She later earned an MFA in Jewelry Design and Metal Arts from Western Michigan University.

A born organizer and community builder, Joanna founded the Battle Creek Artists Guild, which gave artists new opportunities to exhibit and promote their work through a downtown gallery and a summer gallery, Hemlock House, in Harbor Springs. She also led the Battle Creek Watercolor Society and served as its president for many years.

In the mid-1970s, Joanna began teaching in the Battle Creek Public Schools, where she taught art, social studies, and English in elementary and junior high schools. Her students created many large-scale murals that still grace school buildings today. She was known as a gifted, inspiring educator who brought out the creative potential in students of all backgrounds and abilities.

Joanna later developed and directed BCPS’s Academic Enrichment Program, which received statewide recognition for its integrated curriculum connecting art, science, language, and history. After retiring from the public schools in 1997, she served as an adjunct professor of jewelry and art education at Western Michigan University.

Her commitment to global understanding and cultural exchange led Joanna to leadership roles with the Battle Creek International Relations Committee, where she helped coordinate Sister City Exchange programs with Takasaki, Japan. In 1989, she led a delegation of Battle Creek students and teachers to Russia—one of the first U.S. groups to visit during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Joanna’s artistic pursuits extended far beyond the classroom. She designed pins, T-shirts, stamps, and the perpetual winner’s trophy for the World Hot Air Balloon Championship—an artwork that has traveled internationally and was once exhibited at the Louvre in Paris. She also created an enamel plaque commemorating the USAF Thunderbirds’ visit to Battle Creek, now displayed in the Thunderbirds Museum in Nevada. Her public and private artworks include a sculpture for the Archway Cookies headquarters and a large canvas for the Lake Superior Provincial Park Visitor Center in Ontario, among many other pieces.

Travel was a lifelong passion. Joanna and Bob explored countries across Asia, South America, and Europe and returned each summer to her beloved Colorado homestead. She was also a committed peace activist whose art and organizing reflected her dedication to social justice and opposition to war. She led demonstrations with Battle Creek Voices for Peace and contributed bold, expressive works protesting U.S. involvement in armed conflicts. A devoted member of the local Democratic Party, she was often found painting murals and campaign signs for candidates.

Joanna felt most at home in her cozy, art-filled house and studio at the end of a wooded dead-end road overlooking the Kalamazoo River. She and Robert canoed the river year-round and paddled countless waterways across Michigan and Canada. At 81, she embarked on a 12-day canoe trip down the Green River in Utah with her brother Malcolm, hiking canyon rims and sleeping under the stars.

Her legendary summer yard parties featured enormous wooden sculptures built by Joanna, Robert, and their artist friends along the riverbank—delighting passing canoeists and kayakers. One “Statue of Liberty” sculpture rose more than 30 feet above the river; a life-sized wooden moose weathered into a woolly mammoth, and then into a giant bird.

Joanna’s boundless spirit lives on through her children, Rebecca (Lee Zimmerman) and Neal (Montse); her granddaughters Laura (Michael), Jillian (Keegan), Nadia, and Nina; and her great-grandchildren Elle and Francis. She also remains forever connected in spirit to her loving life partner, Robert, by her side for 64 years.

Joanna’s was a life well-lived.

Memorial Contributions in Joanna’s memory may be made to the Battle Creek Art Center Online at: https://artcenterofbattlecreek.org/donate/ or by mail, Battle Creek Art Center, 265 E. Emmett St., Battle Creek, MI 49017 or to the Kingman Museum, https://givebutter.com/KingmanReturns.