He was educated at the Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design and began to exhibit his folklore-inspired sculptures in 1918.
Resettled in the United States after the Soviet occupation of Latvia, Arvīds Brastiņš led an émigré continuation of the movement until his death.
Active as a dramatist, he adapted folk tales into school plays for which he sometimes worked as director, set decorator and painter.
[1][7] Brastiņš established a post-war Dievturība movement for Latvian émigrés in 1947 and led it until his death, holding the title of Dižvadonis (lit.
[4][8] Brastiņš continued to publish folksongs and analyses of Baltic deities, notably in the books Māte Māra (lit.
[7][11] In 2018, Brastiņš' personal archive was gifted by his descendants to the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia [lv] and shipped from America to Riga.
The archive contains research, publications, correspondence and other material related to the works of the Brastiņš brothers, the exile Dievturība movement and the cultural and educational activities of Latvian émigrés in the United States and Canada.