This article explores the development and implementation of a new Doctor of Creative Arts program in a regional university. The experiences of key leadership staff and Doctor of Creative Arts candidates enrolled in the foundation year of the program are contextualised within the current landscape of practice-based arts research in the higher education sector. The process was shaped by the tension between financial imperatives and the possibilities, ambiguity and ambivalence inherent in the arts. The implementation of the Doctor of Creative Arts in 2016, the Chinese Year of the Fire Monkey with its emphasis on intelligent, flexible and creative leadership, was one that offered the most relevant metaphorical framework within which the challenges were best articulated and explored. The findings revealed significant institutional awareness of the new program's potential to facilitate innovative, creative and traditional research outputs, the importance of communicating the value of creative practice-led research for artists and the university, and leadership and support throughout planning and implementation.