Near the Gaylord National Resort, which will host the NCAA Convention in January just outside of Washington, D.C., an odd sculpture symbolizes changes that have occurred in the nation’s capital since the Association last gathered there 34 years ago.

The work, which was completed in 1980, was meant to remain only temporarily at the tip of a relatively quiet Potomac island park south of the Jefferson Memorial as part of a city-wide sculpture exhibition.

But recently, “The Awakening” – best described as the head, arms and legs of a giant emerging from the ground – was reinstalled in the new National Harbor development, which is anchored by the recently opened Gaylord National (click here for a video of the sculpture’s move).

It suggests the rise of a major new capital-area attraction that offers delegates plenty of reason to stay near the hotel, yet offers visitors easy access to the nearby seat of our nation’s government and its many sites of interest.

It should be an interesting place to be during the Convention’s January 14-17 run – just a few days before the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States.

Delegates who want to visit such attractions as the National Mall will find themselves only a short drive away – about 10 miles or 20 minutes south, just off the Capital Beltway.

One of the Mall area’s newest sites actually will host a key Convention event – the honors reception and delegates’ reception.

That event will be held in the Newseum, an interactive museum dedicated to the history of news media. The Newseum opened in April 2007 at Sixth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

The six-level museum, which offers views of the nearby U.S. Capitol, National Museum of Art and other National Mall venues, uses technology and hands-on exhibits to tell the story of five centuries of news history. Its exterior features a 74-foot-high marble engraving of the First Amendment, and its Ochs-Sulzburger Family Great Hall of News will surround delegates attending the reception with displays and artifacts.

The reception isn’t the only organized opportunity available to delegates who want to see Washington’s historical sites.

CSI-Capitol Services Inc. is organizing four capital-area tours for Convention participants. There are three tour options, each four hours long, on Wednesday, January 14, as well as a three-hour “Magnificent Monuments by Moonlight” tour Friday night, January 16.

The January 14 tour options include:

•  African American Heritage Tour, including visits to the Frederick Douglas Home, Anacostia Museum and Lincoln Memorial.

•  Smithsonian Adventure, including stops at the National Museum of American History and the National Portrait Gallery.

•  Botanic and Art Adventure, featuring the United States Botanic Garden and National Gallery of Art.

The Friday-night tour will offer views of Capitol Hill, Lafayette Square, the Jefferson Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and National World War II Memorial.

Further information about the tours and a link to register is available here.

The Gaylord National also is a short distance across the Potomac from Alexandria and its Old Town district of restaurants and shops.

For delegates whose schedules require staying close to the hotel, the National Harbor area itself has been opening new shops and restaurants through the summer and offers opportunities to escape briefly from the bustle of Convention activities.

The Gaylord National itself offers many of the same amenities that have become familiar to the NCAA membership from Conventions at other Gaylord hotels in Nashville, Orlando and Dallas-Fort Worth, but in addition to its location, the hotel in Prince Georges County, Maryland, differs from the other Gaylord properties in at least one other noteworthy respect.

The hotel is taller than its sisters, rising around an 18-story glass atrium – meaning that many of its 2,000 guest rooms generally are closer to Convention facilities than has been true elsewhere.

Convention registration is open. Further information is available from this September 15 article in The NCAA News or from the Convention Web site.

“The Awakening” recently was reinstalled in the National Harbor development outside Washington, D.C.