The difficult times in which we live require innovative, creative, and hopeful pedagogies of adult education. This article describes a nontraditional experiential, "empathy-invoking" approach to the teaching of a graduate course on the theory and research of adult learning. The approach begins with the building of a safe learning community, a familiar "knowledge curriculum," and a structured syllabus with academic readings, small group discussions, student "theory-to-practice" facilitation of learning activities, and an academic mid-term paper. Both the teacher and students design and lead learning activities which elaborate, "unpack," and critique readings, and develop students' capacity for experiential, emotional, spiritual, arts-based, and bodily learning as well as group process, all the while reinforcing trust, deeper relationships, cooperation, and better knowledge of each others' lives, personalities, capabilities, and identities. The class culminates in creative presentations where learners transform the classroom into "living history museums" representing the sites of adult learning they have investigated in field research. Visitors to living history museums engage in a rich array of informal adult learning; they gain new knowledge, participate in hands-on learning and role playing, and at times even experience transformative learning. In this class, the museum and its learning opportunities come into the classroom, and are created by learners themselves.