Culture & Arts

The Culture vertical powers museums, theaters, galleries, cultural centers, and performing arts venues with three integrated systems: exhibition curation, artist profiles, and cultural event programming. Malet Owners configure these features via the Storefront Window layout system.

Architecture: Two-Plane Design

The Culture vertical uses the same Control + Feature plane separation as its sibling verticals:

• Control Plane (malets subgraph): VerticalConfig feature flags decide which Culture modules are enabled per Malet — exhibitionCuration, artistProfiles, seasonPasses, culturalCommerce.
• Feature Plane (experiences subgraph): Self-contained ExhibitionModule and ArtistProfileModule. Each can be extracted to its own subgraph when a dedicated Culture vertical Team forms.
• Extensions (services subgraph): Cultural event type and seating fields on existing Service entities.

Three new Storefront Window layout slot types are available: EXHIBITION_GALLERY, ARTIST_SPOTLIGHT, and SEASON_CALENDAR.

What Culture Reuses

Exhibition Curation

Create virtual gallery exhibitions with curated artwork collections, provenance tracking, and direct-sale capabilities.

Exhibition Types

Exhibition Lifecycle

DRAFT → OPEN → CLOSED → ARCHIVED

Exhibitions start as DRAFT while the curator arranges artwork. Once ready, they're OPEN for public viewing and sales. After the run ends, they move to CLOSED and can later be ARCHIVED for historical records.

Mutations

# Create a new exhibition (Malet Owner)
mutation {
	createExhibition(
		maletId: "m_soweto_theater"
		title: "Impressions of Light"
		slug: "impressions-of-light"
		type: VISUAL_ART
		description: "A celebration of contemporary South African painting"
		coverImageUrl: "https://r2.mallnline.com/exhibitions/impressions.jpg"
	) {
		id
		title
		type
		status
	}
}

# Add artwork to the exhibition
mutation {
	addExhibitionArtwork(
		exhibitionId: "exh_1"
		title: "Sunset Over Soweto"
		artist: "Naledi Mokoena"
		imageUrl: "https://r2.mallnline.com/art/sunset_soweto.jpg"
		medium: "Oil on Canvas"
		dimensions: "36x48 inches"
		provenance: "Commissioned 2025. First exhibited at Johannesburg Art Fair."
	) {
		id
		artworks {
			title
			artist
			medium
			provenance
			isSold
		}
	}
}

# Open for public viewing
mutation {
	openExhibition(exhibitionId: "exh_1") {
		id
		status
	}
}

# Mark an artwork as sold
mutation {
	markArtworkSold(exhibitionId: "exh_1", artworkTitle: "Sunset Over Soweto") {
		id
		artworks {
			title
			isSold
			price
		}
	}
}

# Close the exhibition
mutation {
	closeExhibition(exhibitionId: "exh_1") {
		id
		status
	}
}

# Archive for historical records
mutation {
	archiveExhibition(exhibitionId: "exh_1") {
		id
		status
	}
}

# Update curator notes (private, Malet Owner only)
mutation {
	updateCuratorNotes(
		exhibitionId: "exh_1"
		curatorNotes: "Strong opening night. 3 pieces sold. Consider extending run."
	) {
		id
		curatorNotes
	}
}

Queries

# All open exhibitions for a Malet (public — storefront display)
query {
	activeExhibitions(maletId: "m_soweto_theater") {
		id
		title
		type
		coverImageUrl
		startsAt
		endsAt
		artworks {
			title
			artist
			imageUrl
			medium
			price
			isSold
		}
	}
}

# All exhibitions for a Malet (Malet Owner — includes drafts/archived)
query {
	maletExhibitions(maletId: "m_soweto_theater", status: DRAFT) {
		id
		title
		status
		artworks {
			title
			artist
		}
	}
}

# Single exhibition by ID
query {
	exhibition(id: "exh_1") {
		id
		title
		description
		type
		status
		curatorNotes
		artworks {
			title
			artist
			medium
			dimensions
			year
			imageUrl
			price
			isSold
			provenance
		}
	}
}

ExhibitionArtwork Fields

Each artwork embedded in an exhibition tracks:

Artist Profiles

Public showcase pages for performing artists, visual artists, and instructors. Each profile is scoped per Malet — the same artist exhibiting at multiple venues has separate profiles per Malet.

Mutations

# Create an artist profile (Malet Owner)
mutation {
	createArtistProfile(
		maletId: "m_soweto_theater"
		name: "Naledi Mokoena"
		slug: "naledi-mokoena"
		bio: "Contemporary South African painter known for vibrant township scenes."
		photoUrl: "https://r2.mallnline.com/artists/naledi.jpg"
		portfolioUrl: "https://naledi.art"
	) {
		id
		name
		slug
		isActive
	}
}

# Update artist bio
mutation {
	updateArtistProfile(
		artistId: "art_1"
		bio: "Award-winning South African painter. Featured at Johannesburg Art Fair 2025."
	) {
		id
		bio
	}
}

# Deactivate profile (soft-disable — not publicly visible)
mutation {
	deactivateArtistProfile(artistId: "art_1") {
		id
		isActive
	}
}

Queries

# All active artists for a Malet (public — artist spotlight carousel)
query {
	maletArtists(maletId: "m_soweto_theater") {
		id
		name
		slug
		bio
		specialties
		photoUrl
		portfolioUrl
		socialLinks {
			platform
			url
		}
	}
}

# Single artist by ID
query {
	artistProfile(id: "art_1") {
		id
		name
		bio
		specialties
		socialLinks {
			platform
			url
		}
		isActive
	}
}

# Artist by slug (for SEO-friendly URLs)
query {
	artistBySlug(maletId: "m_soweto_theater", slug: "naledi-mokoena") {
		id
		name
		bio
		portfolioUrl
	}
}

Social Links

Each artist profile supports an array of social media links:

# Example social links structure
socialLinks: [
  { platform: "Instagram", url: "https://instagram.com/naledi_art" }
  { platform: "Behance", url: "https://behance.net/naledi" }
  { platform: "X", url: "https://x.com/naledi_mokoena" }
]

Cultural Event Programming

Extended service fields for cultural events on the existing services subgraph:

Service Fields

Cultural Event Types

Seating Types

Example: Create a Cultural Event

mutation {
	createOneService(
		input: {
			service: {
				name: "Hamlet — Opening Night"
				description: "Shakespeare's tragedy performed by the Soweto Players"
				price: 15000 # R150.00 (cents)
				maletId: "m_soweto_theater"
				culturalEventType: SHOW
				seatingType: RESERVED
			}
		}
	) {
		id
		name
		culturalEventType
		seatingType
	}
}

Season Passes

Season passes are powered by the Membership Engine from the Wellness vertical — reused as multi-event subscriptions with event quotas.

How It Works

A "Gold Season Pass" is a MembershipPlan with a WellnessPlanTier and a sessionsPerMonth quota representing events per season:

# Create a season pass plan
mutation {
	createMembershipPlan(
		maletId: "m_soweto_theater"
		name: "Gold Season Pass"
		tier: GOLD
		sessionsPerMonth: 12 # 12 events per season
		monthlyPrice: 30000 # R300/month
		productDiscountPercent: 15 # 15% off merchandise
	) {
		id
		name
		tier
		sessionsPerMonth
	}
}

Each time a season pass holder attends an event, recordMembershipUsage decrements their remaining quota. When the season ends, renewMembershipPeriod resets the counter.

Workroom Steps

The Culture vertical ships with 4 default Workroom steps for exhibition/show lifecycle management:

These steps are automatically configured on new Culture Malets via the vertical seed (indigo/amber branding).

Deferred Features

The following capabilities are planned for future phases using in-house, open-source/standard solutions — no third-party SaaS dependencies:

Frontend Implementation

Three Svelte 5 storefront widgets render the Culture vertical in the Visitor-facing storefront:

Components

File Map

Layout Slot Types

Related

• Entertainment & Experiences — Provides Event Ticketing and Gamified Loyalty that Culture reuses directly
• Wellness & Beauty — Provides the Membership Engine reused as season passes
• Professional Services — Sibling vertical in the shared experiences subgraph Feature Plane
• Storefront Sections — Configure EXHIBITION_GALLERY, ARTIST_SHOWCASE, and SEASON_CALENDAR layout slots
• Teams & Sub-Groups — Organize curators and artists with the org → team → member hierarchy
• Tech & Electronics — Sibling vertical with spec engine and warranty management in the shared experiences subgraph
• Arcade & Gaming — Sibling vertical with digital key vaults for game distribution in the shared experiences subgraph
• Support: Exhibitions & Artists — Visitor-facing guide