2018 finds the field of Time-Based Media Conservation in a key moment of transition and growth. With the 20th anniversary of AIC's Electronic Media Group having recently past, and the decade old programs of Time-Based Media Conservation at pioneering institutions now at a point of maturity, a new wave of small and medium sized institutions and other art world stakeholders are beginning to come online and address the aspects of institutional growth and evolution that are required in order to properly care for Time-Based Media Art. A significant challenge for these stakeholders – some of which have already been actively collecting for decades – is the establishment of digital collections storage. Art storage is a high-stakes endeavor from a risk perspective, and architecting viable long-term digital storage solutions requires a specialist skillset. Perhaps the most challenging dimension of this new area of stewardship, however, is its long-term financial implications. On the ground, there is a broad spectrum of ways in which art-world stakeholders – institutions, galleries, collectors, artists – are finding the balance between digital preservation best practices, and financially and operationally sustainable solutions. The aim of this paper is to provide a snapshot of where the field stands in 2018, providing a rigorous and statistics-driven survey of how art-world stakeholders are meeting this new challenge, and where they are in their journey towards digital collections storage.
