UNESCO sites in Illinois safe amid U.S. withdrawal
The big picture: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization honors natural and cultural sites across the globe that must be preserved due to their significance to history and humanity. It has identified more than 1,200 sites for the World Heritage List, including three in Illinois.
Driving the news: The Trump administration announced last week that the U.S. was pulling out of the organization because it "supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes that are totally out-of-step with the commonsense policies that Americans voted for in November," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement.
Flashback: Trump also pulled the U.S. out of UNESCO in 2017, citing anti-Israel bias, but President Biden had the country rejoin in 2023.
State of play: The U.S. will no longer pay dues. UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay said the organization had financially prepared for the U.S. withdrawal.
The U.S. remains a member of the World Heritage Convention, and it will continue to preserve and promote the 26 U.S. sites included on the list, an UNESCO spokesperson told Axios.
"Even during previous UNESCO withdrawals in 1984 and 2017, the United States continued to nominate and support World Heritage inscriptions," Barbara Gordon of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy told Axios.
Eight U.S. Wright properties are included on the World Heritage List.
Yes, but: "While UNESCO does not provide direct funding to the sites that comprise 'The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright,' several U.S. agencies that do support public Wright sites have experienced severe cuts," Gordon said.
She added, "These funding reductions pose a serious risk to the continued stewardship, preservation, and interpretation of Wright's architectural legacy."
Zoom in: Illinois sites include one near St. Louis and two in the Chicago area.
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