Arts Development for Scripture Engagement

Michelle Petersen

Michelle Petersen Wycliffe Bible Translators US

Keywords: Status Development, Corpus Development, Acquisition Development, Luther, Reformation

Abstract

Because languages and arts are means of communication, principles from the field of language development that communities apply to strengthen language vitality also strengthen the vitality of local artistic genres. Arts development expands a community’s existing uses of orality and arts to new topics and functions to better meet community goals together. Status development activities increase the number of domains of use and the level of respect given local artistic genres. Corpus development activities describe genre forms and create new works in them. Acquisition development activities add to the number of people who perform or experience new works, and increase people’s interest in them. When communities work together to meet their Kingdom goals, arts development activities add to the number of people who encounter God’s word in life-transforming ways.

**A new version of the PDF was uploaded on January 4, 2018, to correct an error in the citations in footnote 8. All other content is the same as the original PDF.

Author Biography

Michelle Petersen, Wycliffe Bible Translators US

Michelle Petersen is an International Arts Consultant serving with Wycliffe Bible Translators. She holds an MA in Language Development from GIAL, and a summa cum laude BA in French and TESOL from the University of Utah. She has worked in literacy and Scripture radio drama across West and Central Africa and taught Linguistics, Scripture Engagement and World Arts in Europe and North America. She is part of the team that developed GIAL’s MA in World Arts at the Center for Excellence in World Arts.