Long before the opening of Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre on April 24, 2013, a long path had been taken, so that an idea that was born in 2002, would be realised and Daugavpils would create a unique tribute to the world-famous artist Mark Rothko, born in Daugavpils, with the opportunity to see millions worth of the artist's original works. The fact that the hometown of the world-famous 20th century American artist Mark Rothko (Markus Rotkovich) is in the former Dvinsk in the Russian Empire (now Daugavpils in the Republic of Latvia) has not been widely discussed internationally until now.
The Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre is housed in the historical artillery arsenal building of the Daugavpils Fortress, built in 1833. Three different projects co-funded by the European Union were developed and approved to reconstruct the artillery arsenal and create the Rothko Centre. The projects were implemented by Daugavpils City Council in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, the Rothko family and supporters around the world. In total, the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre cost almost EUR 6.5 million to build. Most of the funding was covered by the European Regional Development Fund and the Latvia-Lithuania cross-border programme.
During the reconstruction of the Artillery Arsenal building to create the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre, an important part of the architectural ensemble - the Daugavpils Fortress - was restored. The suitability of the premises of the Arsenal building for the creation of art galleries, artists' studios, residencies, exhibition spaces, foundation spaces, seminar-conference spaces, event spaces and the name of the famous painter Rothko, in close cooperation with the Rothko family, created new cultural services not only in Daugavpils and Latgale region, but also in Latvia and Eastern Europe as a whole.
The Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre is a multifunctional contemporary art and culture centre, the only place in Eastern Europe that offers the opportunity to get acquainted with the original works of the world-famous, Daugavpils-born artist and founder of Abstract Expressionism, Mark Rothko.
The reconstruction project of the Artillery Arsenal building for the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre won the main prize in the "Restoration" nomination at the annual "Best Building of the Year in Latvia 2012" competition organised by the Latvian Builders' Association. The Daugavpils Fortress Regeneration Project has won the prestigious "Council of Europe Landscape Award" organised by the General Secretariat of the Council of Europe.
The Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre was created with the aim of promoting the development of cultural tourism in Latvia. One of the tasks of the Art Centre is to create international recognition and competitiveness of Latvia and Daugavpils in the cultural space, to promote the creation of new unique cultural products and the development of cultural services. The Centre works to integrate Daugavpils' cultural processes into the European and world cultural circuits and to offer not only Daugavpils, but also Latvian residents and tourists from all over the world access to high quality professional artistic expressions.
