Dozens of artworks from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection are hitting the road this summer, stopping in Toronto for one night before heading to Washington, D.C.

For the past five years, the Kleinburg, Ont., gallery has hosted an annual fundraising reception that transports art from its permanent collection — pieces by the likes of Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, David Milne and Emily Carr, as well as First Nations and Inuit artists — to Toronto for a lavish one-night exhibit.

Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., is slated to join the guests at the latest Toronto event, scheduled for May 22 at the Carlu performance hall and event space.

The annual art party is typically attended by personalities from the worlds of politics, business, media and the arts.

Following this year's reception, 60 McMichael artworks will travel to the U.S., with 26 to be displayed in a special exhibition entitled Our Home and Native Land at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., beginning on July 4. Twenty-two works will be hung in the hallway outside Wilson's office at the embassy and the remaining 12 hung in his official residence in the city.

The works will remain in Washington until January 2008.