Influential Art Historian from the Right Campaign played a significant role in the planning of Project 2025
In October 2024, The Heritage Foundation launched Project Esther, a national strategy spearheaded by art historian Victoria Coates. The initiative aims to address and counter progressive influence in U.S. institutions, particularly in higher education [1][3][5].
Project Esther's primary purpose is to reclaim and reform the cultural and academic environment, which conservatives argue have been dominated by progressive organizations and ideologies. The project seeks to counter what it perceives as progressive or left-wing activism and indoctrination in universities and other institutions. It also aims to promote conservative values, ideas, and perspectives in higher education and cultural spaces [1][3][5].
Strategically, Project Esther challenges progressive organizations' influence within academia, aiming to reshape curricula, campus policies, and the intellectual climate. The initiative offers a comprehensive approach that involves policy recommendations and cultural engagement to shift power in favor of conservative viewpoints [1][3][5].
Project Esther positions itself as a response and pushback against progressive dominance in universities, which conservatives see as hostile to their values. It targets progressive organizations that have significant influence over campus culture and curricula, aiming to introduce a conservative counterbalance and reduce what it describes as politicized or ideologically biased education [1][3][5].
Victoria Coates, the project's leader, studied Italian Renaissance art history at Williams College and the University of Pennsylvania. In her book, David's Sling: A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art (2016), Coates compares exceptional works examined in her book to the Iron Dome missile defense system, suggesting they demonstrate how liberty inspires human ingenuity [6][7].
However, Coates's work has been criticised for her misdirections, omissions, and speculative fabrications, which some argue collude to subsume art into authoritarianism [2]. For instance, Coates refers to the code name of a mid-range missile developed by Raytheon as part of Israel's Iron Dome air defense system, which shares its name with her book. Yet, she elides the fact that AMF, a company Coates co-founded and merged with DeWalt Tools, provided cover for Israel's nuclear weapons development program in the 1950s [4].
Moreover, Coates's book mentions but does not cite 5th century BCE references to a bronze statue of Lucius Junius Brutus, a founder of the Roman Republic. The bronze statue believed to be a portrait of Brutus is a 16th century fabulation. Contemporary scholarship suggests the bronze actually dates from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE [8].
In 2023, a Florida principal was fired for allowing 6th graders to see pictures of Michelangelo's David. Project Esther's main tactic is accusing institutions, faculty, and students of anti-Semitism. The organisation describes a broad range of critics of Israel as "effectively a terrorist support network" [9].
Coates was removed from her position after being accused of being the anonymous author of a critical op-ed and a book about Trump. She ended her book with a lament that freedom is not the default setting for governance [10].
In conclusion, Project Esther is a strategically designed initiative aimed at reshaping U.S. higher education and cultural institutions by opposing progressive influence and advancing conservative principles. However, the project's methods and some of its leaders' work have faced criticism for their accuracy and potential to stifle diverse perspectives.
- Project Esther, a national strategy launched by art historian Victoria Coates in October 2024, aims to reclaim and reform the academic environment in universities and cultural spaces, promoting conservative values and ideas while countering progressive activism and indoctrination.
- The primary purpose of Project Esther is to challenge progressive organizations' influence within academia, aiming to reshape curricula, campus policies, and the intellectual climate in favor of conservative viewpoints through a comprehensive approach that involves policy recommendations and cultural engagement.
- Victoria Coates, the project's leader, studied Italian Renaissance art history and has written a book, David's Sling, which compares exceptional works of art to the Iron Dome missile defense system, showing how liberty inspires human ingenuity.
- Coates's work, however, has faced criticism for misdirections, omissions, and speculative fabrications, with some arguing that it colludes to subsume art into authoritarianism.
- In 2023, a Florida principal was fired for allowing 6th graders to see pictures of Michelangelo's David. Project Esther's main tactic is accusing institutions, faculty, and students of anti-Semitism, describing a broad range of critics of Israel as an "effectively terrorist support network."
- Coates, who was removed from her position after being accused of being the anonymous author of a critical op-ed and a book about Trump, concluded her book with a lament that freedom is not the default setting for governance.
