The Nine Discoveries®
Professional Education · The Nine Discoveries®

Build a Life Around Creativity

A progressive professional program in visual arts and creative education, from first Discovery to professional certification.

Founding cohort planned for 2027

Register Your Interest Explore the Program 
Hisae Sophia Dias demonstrating a painting to a class

More than twenty years observing creative development across Japan, the United States and Australia.

The Possibility

Your Creative Life Can Become Part of Your Professional Life

Perhaps art has always mattered to you more than the time you have been able to give it, fitted around a career that took you somewhere else. Perhaps you already teach or work with children and want to understand creative development with far greater depth. Perhaps you are an artist with real skill in your own materials, who has never had a structured way to pass that skill on to others. Or perhaps you are simply ready to build something new, and want it to rest on more than enthusiasm.

The Nine Discoveries Professional Education is built for adults arriving from any of these directions, who are ready to commit real time to developing capability that holds up.

Program at a Glance

A Structured, Multi-Year Professional Education

An indicative three-year program built around The Nine Discoveries®, combining online learning with practical studio work. Progression is portfolio based and competency based: you move forward as your work demonstrates genuine capability, not simply as time passes.

The program does not aim to produce a particular creative outcome. It develops the underlying capacities, among them observation, curiosity, imagination, intuition, experimentation, judgement and responsiveness, that create the conditions in which creativity can emerge and grow. Structure here supports creative freedom; it does not prescribe what that creativity should become.

Duration
Approximately three years (indicative, not fixed)
Structure
The Nine Discoveries, studied in sequence across Foundation, Development and Integration
How you study
Online learning combined with practical studio work
Progression
Portfolio evidence, feedback and demonstrated competency
Credential
The Nine Discoveries professional certification (proprietary)
Founding cohort
Planned for 2027
What You'll Study

The Breadth of Visual Arts Study

Across the program, you will build understanding and practice across the full breadth of the visual arts, including:

  • observation and visual awareness
  • line, shape, form and space
  • colour, value and tone
  • texture, pattern, rhythm, balance and composition
  • drawing
  • painting
  • materials and material behaviour
  • printing
  • collage
  • construction
  • sculpture and three dimensional making
  • principles of art and design
  • aesthetic sensitivity and judgement
  • visual communication
  • creative decision making
  • experimentation, imagination, reflection and refinement
  • independent creative thinking and practice

These areas are studied progressively and in relationship through The Nine Discoveries®.

The Learner Journey

From First Study to What You Build Next

  1. Learn
  2. Create
  3. Demonstrate
  4. Certify
  5. Teach
  6. Lead
  7. Build

Professional Education covers learning, creating, demonstrating and certification. Teaching follows the separate CJF Educator Certification, and leading or building are possible later directions for some graduates, never automatic outcomes.

The Nine Discoveries®

A Progression Through Nine Discoveries

Study moves through the nine Discoveries in sequence, with increasing depth and integration across three phases.

  1. Foundation
  2. Development
  3. Integration
How Study Works

A Practical Rhythm, Discovery by Discovery

This is serious, hands-on study, not passive viewing. Each Discovery follows the same cycle of making, feedback and refinement.

  1. Watch
  2. Understand
  3. Practise
  4. Create
  5. Submit
  6. Receive Feedback
  7. Refine
  8. Demonstrate Competency
  9. Progress
What You'll Build

The Capability the Program Develops

Where the previous list showed the breadth of what you will study, these are the capabilities the program is designed to develop and assess: the capacities exercised through the creative process itself, not simply the artwork that results from it.

  • Portfolio development
  • Material understanding
  • Observation and curiosity
  • Imagination and intuition
  • Experimentation
  • Decision making and judgement
  • Responsiveness and individual interpretation
  • Bringing work into form
  • Professional discipline
  • The foundation of educator capability
A Further Professional Stage

Becoming an Educator

Visual arts capability on its own does not qualify someone to teach children. For graduates who want to teach, CJF Educator Certification is a separate, later credential built on the Creative Journey Formula™ teaching methodology.

It is pursued after Professional Education, with its own preparation and its own assessment, including child-focused facilitation and observed teaching practice. Completing Professional Education does not confer educator certification. Full details of the Educator Certification pathway will be published separately.

Where This Could Take You

Possible Futures, Built on Real Capability

Graduates may carry their capability in different directions: independent creative practice, community workshops, adult or children's visual arts education after educator certification, further professional development, or leadership within creative education. What suits you will depend on your own circumstances and choices, and no particular outcome is promised.

A Separate, Later Opportunity

Kids Art Fun

Kids Art Fun is a separate company and a licensed real world application of The Nine Discoveries® framework in children's creative education. It may offer opportunities to suitably certified educators.

Selected candidates may later apply for separate business and operator education, and eligible candidates may in time apply for a future licensed business opportunity under a separate commercial process. Each stage has its own assessment, selection and commercial requirements, and none is guaranteed.

A young student drawing at an easel during a Kids Art Fun class
Founder & Origin

Shaped by More Than Twenty Years of Practice

The Nine Discoveries Professional Education grows from more than twenty years of direct observation and creative education practice by Hisae Sophia Dias, author, artist and educator, across Japan, the United States and Australia. That practice includes more than a decade of direct application through Kids Art Fun.

Professional Education is where that depth of practice is now offered to adults, through an institution designed to grow beyond any one teacher.

About Hisae Sophia Dias 

Hisae Sophia Dias
Evidence & Trust

What This Program Stands On

Founder

Two Decades of Observation

Hisae Sophia Dias has spent more than twenty years observing creative development in children across Japan, the United States and Australia. She is the author of The First 9 Discoveries for a Rich Fulfilled Life Ahead and The Last Acceleration.

Operating History

A Decade of Real Practice

For more than a decade, Kids Art Fun has operated across Ironside State School, Good News Lutheran School, Yeronga State School and a studio in Chapel Hill, applying The Nine Discoveries® framework in daily practice with children.

Qualification Status

An Honest Statement of Status

The Nine Discoveries Professional Education is a proprietary professional education program. It is not currently a nationally accredited qualification and does not carry Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) status. Professional Education is new: learner and graduate stories will be shared only once genuine learners and graduates exist.

Founding Cohort Planned for 2027

Register Your Interest

Join the interest list for the founding cohort. You will receive program information and enrolment updates as they become available. Registering your interest is not enrolment, acceptance or a guaranteed place.

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Your interest has been received. We will share further program information and updates about the founding cohort as they become available. Registering your interest is not enrolment, acceptance or a guaranteed place.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need previous art experience?

The program is designed for adults beginning from a range of starting points, including people with limited formal art training. Entry requirements will be confirmed before enrolments open.

Is study online?

Study combines online learning with practical studio work. You will make real work with real materials throughout the program.

How much practical work is involved?

A great deal. Each Discovery moves through practice, creation, submission, feedback and refinement, and progression depends on the work you make, not on time spent watching.

How is progress assessed?

Progress is portfolio based and competency based. You move forward as your work demonstrates genuine capability, supported by feedback along the way.

How long does the program take?

Approximately three years. This is an indicative estimate, not a fixed promise, moving through Foundation, Development and Integration at a pace that reflects demonstrated progress.

What credential is issued?

Learners who complete the program receive The Nine Discoveries professional certification, a proprietary credential issued by The Nine Discoveries Pty Ltd.

Is it nationally recognised or accredited?

No. The Nine Discoveries Professional Education is not currently a nationally accredited qualification and does not carry Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) status. It is a proprietary professional education program.

What is the difference between Professional Education and CJF Educator Certification?

Professional Education develops your own visual arts capability. CJF Educator Certification is a separate, later credential built on the Creative Journey Formula™ teaching methodology, with its own assessment, for those who go on to prepare to teach.

Can it lead to work with Kids Art Fun?

It may, but it is never automatic. Kids Art Fun is a separate company and a licensed real world application of The Nine Discoveries. Suitably certified educators may apply for opportunities with licensed organisations such as Kids Art Fun, subject to their own selection processes.

Does completion guarantee a franchise or a business opportunity?

No. Completing Professional Education does not guarantee employment, operator status or a franchise. Any later business or operator education, and any future licensed business opportunity, involves separate assessment, selection and commercial requirements.

What equipment and materials will I need?

A list of required equipment and materials will be provided before enrolments open.

How much does the program cost?

Tuition information will be available before enrolments open.

What happens after I register my interest?

You join the interest list for the founding cohort. We will share further program information and enrolment updates as they become available. Registering your interest is not enrolment, acceptance or a guarantee of a place.

Another question? Contact us