About CMACC
Reimagining shared conservation infrastructure for media art
The Canyon Media Art Conservation Center (CMACC) was founded in response to a fundamental shift in contemporary art. As video, sound, performance, installation, software, and other time-based media have become central to artistic practice, the systems designed to preserve cultural heritage have struggled to keep pace. These works depend on rapidly evolving technologies, bespoke configurations, and live technical conditions—yet the infrastructure supporting their long-term care has remained largely rooted in models developed for physical objects.
CMACC builds on a long but often overlooked tradition of regional conservation centers: shared, field-facing resources established to support artists, collectors, and institutions that lack in-house capacity for specialized conservation work. Historically, these centers played a critical role in stabilizing collections, developing standards, and advancing professional practice across entire regions. CMACC extends the proven regional conservation center model into the digital era—creating a shared, nonprofit resource dedicated exclusively to the conservation of technologically complex artworks that define the present century. Serving artists, collectors, and institutions across the field, CMACC addresses a critical gap in the national preservation landscape at a moment of increasing urgency.
An initiative of Canyon, an active exhibition venue for time-based art, CMACC operates in constant dialogue with how works are actually produced, installed, experienced, and maintained. This proximity allows conservation research and methodology to be informed by live exhibition conditions rather than abstract models. At the same time, CMACC’s work is field-facing: we partner with artists, collectors, and institutions beyond Canyon to provide conservation services, guidance, and technical expertise wherever media artworks live.
By combining conservation practice, research, and capacity-building within a shared institutional framework, CMACC aims to strengthen the infrastructure that allows time-based media art not only to survive, but to remain viable, accessible, and meaningful over time.
Staff
Cass Fino-Radin
Vice President of Art & Technology, Canyon;
Director, Canyon Media Art Conservation Center
Cass Fino-Radin is Vice President of Art & Technology at Canyon and Director of the Canyon Media Art Conservation Center (CMACC). They bring a long-standing commitment to the care of media-based artworks to Canyon’s exhibition and conservation programs, shaping how the institution approaches technical production, long-term stewardship, and the broader ecosystem in which this work circulates.
As Director of CMACC, Cass leads the center’s strategic direction and builds relationships across the art and conservation ecosystem. They focus on the institutional conditions that make media art sustainable—from the partnerships and standards that support it to the infrastructures that allow it to circulate and persist.
Prior to Canyon, Cass founded and led Small Data Industries, a conservation lab specializing in time-based media art. They previously served as a media art conservator at the Museum of Modern Art and at Rhizome at the New Museum, and were a 2025 Scholar-in-Residence at the Getty Conservation Institute. Across these roles, Cass has worked to advance conservation as a field while helping build the institutions and systems that support media art’s full lifecycle.
Erin Bârsan
Program Manager
Erin Bârsan is CMACC’s Program Manager, where she oversees program operations, conservation projects, and institutional partnerships and serves as the primary point of contact for clients and member institutions. In this role, she plays a central part in ensuring projects move smoothly from planning through delivery. She brings over a decade of experience working across archives, libraries, museums, and contemporary art settings, most recently in federal grantmaking and nonprofit program leadership, overseeing large-scale applied research and cultural heritage portfolios. Erin’s work draws on her background in digital preservation, archives, and arts and humanities funding to support coordinated, sustainable program delivery.
Nick Kaplan
Associate Conservator
Nick Kaplan is CMACC’s Associate Conservator, where he works on the assessment, treatment, and documentation of time-based media artworks. His work includes condition assessments, preservation planning, artist interviews, and collaboration with clients and technicians to support the long-term care and exhibition of complex media-based works. Nick brings more than fourteen years of experience working with contemporary artists, collectors, and cultural institutions. He holds a master’s degree in art conservation from the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation.
Emma Dickson
Conservation Technician
Emma Dickson is CMACC's Conservation Technician, where they work on the technical assessment, documentation, and preservation of media artworks. Their work includes hardware/software restoration and analysis, forensic documentation, and digital asset management for complex media-based collections. Emma brings eight years of experience in conservation technology, full-stack development, and data engineering. Emma holds a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and Sociology from New York University and a Certificate in Digital Archiving and Preservation from the Media Arts Institute of Krems.