Ginger

The Awakening is leaving D.C. This is a sad moment for me. It has become a focal point of interest to visit. It has become a fun piece to visit and children love to play on this sculpture. It calls out to any who visit…..My son said it begs to be climbed, scaled and explored. The Awakening is a 100 foot sculpture done in 5 pieces. It is a giant who is trying to pull himself out of the ground or buried in the ground. It is open to interpretation and kids love to give theirs.

The Awakening is a sculpture created by J Seward Johnson. The sculpture was placed in Hains Point in 1980 for the International Sculpture Conference. The park was given a temporary 2 year permit. 27 years later after becoming a landmark of D.C. the sculpture was sold for a whopping $750,00. Hains Point is no longer what it used to be and Mr. Johnson apparently has veto rights. He too must feel that this is a better move for his gigantic piece of sculpture. It is being moved to the newly developing National Harbor.

The sculpture will be moving to Prince George’s county MD and will become part of a 2 Billion dollar waterfront project. It is part of a 300 acre development project that is just a little ways down the Potomac River. Still within the D.C. area…but as I don’t live in the D.C. area it will still be a trip for my family and I. Mainly this is due to the amount of traffic we have. We are not centrally located for the metro and have to drive 20 minutes now to the nearest metro station.

My children (the youngest being 10) remember taking a field trip and The Awakening was part of that trip.

We will be visiting the sculpture one last time on Monday. We will combine a trip to Mount Vernon along with this visit. Entrance to Mount Vernon will be free on Monday due to it being President’s Day.

The sculpture will be dug up on Wednesday of this week.

Thanks Gwadzilla for pointing out the needed correction…. I just had Baltimore stuck in my head for some reason….