Founded by Pamela and Richard Kramlich in 1997, the New Art Trust has participated in the preservation and presentation of hundreds of time-based media works of historical, artistic and social significance since its inception. Through its support of research and advanced professional symposia in the area of preservation and conservation of new media, New Art Trust has helped to increase knowledge and awareness of the unique conditions video art and time-based media installation present for collectors and collecting institutions. In collaboration with one of New Art Trust's supported partners, the Bay Area Video Coalition of San Francisco, the Trust founded the only video and audio preservation centre in the United States serving the non-profit sector with subsidised rates for the preservation of video collections at risk.

In addition to helping build a successful Video Preservation Center, New Art Trust has supported national symposia such as Tech Archeology, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2000, and helped publish BAVC's Playback: Preserving Analogue Video, an interactive DVD that was released in 2003. Through its intensive focus on research and education, it has become clear that traditional boundaries within collecting institutions fail to capture the essence of works of film and video installation art. For this reason New Art Trust partnered with San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Tate Gallery in London to further develop public education and research related to the public presentation and long-term care of media art.

Often only fully realised in their installed state, time-based media works are complex systems made up of a range of components of varying status. Effective approaches to the stewardship of electronic art rely on the blending of traditional museum practice with new modes of operating that derive from and respond to the complex nature of these installations.