The tracks on this album offer an invaluable insight into a wide range of techniques and practices surrounding Creative Writing. Writers as diverse as Alan Ayckbourn, Ian McMillan and Tanika Gupta talk openly about their approaches and attitudes to all aspects of writing from original concept to final drafts and productions. Writing for stage, print, television and radio is discussed in engaging and articulate detail. This material forms part of The Open University course A363 Advanced creative writing.

The Louvre was designed to house a great art collection for the people of France. Was there a plan from the outset to build a canon of work where the relationships between artists, their origins, their schools and faiths could be traced across centuries? And how did architect I.M.Pei persuade President Mitterrand to allow a pyramid to be built at the Louvre? The album goes on to explore how architecture can reflect relationships between different traditions. Two great buildings, Palladio’s church of the Redentore in Venice and Sinan’s Sokullu Mehmet Pasha mosque in Istanbul illustrate shared approaches to the purpose for which the spaces were designed. This material is taken from The Open University course A216 Art and its histories.

How do you address problematic issues at work? This album reveals more creative ways to solve problems, other than relying on rational techniques such as brainstorming and lateral thinking. Employees at a small software company are shown how to access their unconscious minds using the power of imagery, associative thinking and metaphor, to find solutions and creative approaches to their work. Meanwhile at a Neuro-linguistic Programming seminar, participants learn to use metaphor on a deeper level for practical problem-solving. The facilitators also comment and discuss their techniques and observations, including the significance of gesture, body language and breathing in the sessions. This material forms part of The Open University course B822 Creativity, innovation and change.

Is creativity a mind-set or can it be developed? How much influence does organisational culture have on creativity in the workplace? And is there space for innovation within all business environments?
Managing a successful business is never simple, especially when it’s necessary to navigate a company through a changing landscape. Featuring a series of interviews on topics such as flexible working, the role of leadership and creating under constraint, this collection also takes a closer look at fear, bias and intuition and the role they play on shaping creative environments. It examines approaches used by both private and public sectors and gives an insight into how they use different aspects of creativity to run their organisations. Martin Miller of independent music label Beggars Banquet talks about managing change, while NHS Chief Exec Samantha Jones talks about managing creativity when faced with the pressures of running NHS trust. Also featuring contributions from Microsoft, Cloud Reach, Morgan Lovell, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and Milton Keynes Dons football manager, Karl Robinson.

Just how dangerous is the everyday workplace? What can be done to mitigate risks and avoid hazards? And what trade-offs have to be made between the competing demands of safety, efficiency and wider social responsibility? This album looks at three very different case studies - farming, food manufacturing and urban redevelopment - and explores the varying approaches to risk management within each different sphere. It includes a visit to Fox's Biscuits and Brooksby Agricultural College in the UK and the city of Pittsburgh in the USA, and includes interviews with participants, academics and professional experts. The material forms part of The Open University course T835, Integrated health, safety and environmental management.

If you could save one thing for posterity, what would it be? Your answer is likely to depend on the things you value. But the things that society values are changing all the time. The tracks on this album explore four different heritage stories. In the feature on the Lake District, we hear how the values of Wordsworth sometimes have to give way to the values of farmers. In two features on archaeology, we shine the spotlight on a discipline where there is increasing emphasis on the ordinary over the historic or spectacular. And in our feature on the memorial to the London July bombings, we hear from ordinary people in control of the design. The album also contains academic perspectives from Rodney Harrison, Lecturer in Heritage Studies at The Open University. This material forms part of The Open University Course AD281 Understanding global heritage. You can discover something of what it's like to study the course by using the downloadable 'activities' files to explore the concept of ‘World Heritage’, how it is defined, and conflicting interests in its management. You can also learn more about changing approaches to archaeology and heritage management, and the relationship between heritage and public memory.