[5] For the first eight years the main tasks of the centre were organising the archive, creating metadata and a digital information retrieval system.
[3] Due to the preparatory stages of work and general lack of space the centre was in most part closed to the public until late 2018.
To create facilities for research and educational programmes and to develop the centre into a meeting place for music lovers with a proper concert hall, an international two-stage architectural competition was announced in 2013.
The main guests speaking at the event were President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid, Vice-President of the European Commission Andrus Ansip and Minister of Culture Indrek Saar.
[12][13][14] The first public concert in the centre took place the following day, 14 October 2018, with American violinist Anne Akiko Meyers accompanied on a piano by Akira Eguchi.
In April 2020, after receiving an award from the BBVA Foundation, Pärt gave an interview to the Spanish newspaper ABC concerning the coronavirus crisis.
He was quoted as saying that nobody knows how we will emerge from this, but we feel that nothing will be the same ("Nadie sabe cómo saldremos de esto, pero todos sentimos que nada permanecerá como estaba").
Many earlier documents from 1950s to 1970s are currently located at other memory institutions of Estonia or in private hands but the Arvo Pärt Centre has either paper or digital copies of most of them.
Researchers can view lists of the archive content on the centre's web site but even digital materials are accessible only on location.
The focus of the concert programme is on introducing musicians from Estonia and abroad who have had a close collaboration with Arvo Pärt over the years.
The activity has been conducted in collaboration with cinema Sõprus in Tallinn, however, after the opening of the new building in 2018 some screenings have been also organised at the premises of the centre.
The building makes use of various geometrical (mostly pentagonal) structures and shapes, and largely due to the sinuous curved walls forms a continuity without a clear beginning or end.