Today's the end of our Canadian cultural magazine tour and I'm happy to report that we're ending on a very positive note.

As a Canadian citizen who (a) loves culture and (b) likes to see my tax dollars at work, I'm delighted to see the National Gallery of Canada keeps a lively website, full of text information and images that keep me up to date on events. I hardly ever get to Ottawa, and the website makes me feel included in an important Canadian cultural institution.

That's why I was doubly delighted to learn that the Gallery publishes a quarterly magazine that's even more informative.

The fall edition of Vernissage (that's French for 'Varnishing') is in many ways just a glossed up catalogue. In its bilingual pages, it covers noteworthy topics such exhibits touring across the country, as well as key events at the National Gallery's Ottawa headquarters.

Beyond the calendar-type items are a few articles of depth. The fall 2000 edition features a Q-and-A with artist Garry Neill Kennedy, who's prepping a big show for November.

There's another fine piece on Krieghoff: Images of Canada. The Art Gallery of Ontario show is currently on tour and making a stopover at The National Gallery. There are reprints of six of the pieces of from the show's catalogues, with excerpts from essays on the technique and scenic representations.

There's a bit of art-speak to wade through in the pages of the magazine. It's much more densely footnoted than a typical article in the more accessible Canadian Art magazine. However the footnoting serves a valuable purpose. It provides sources for scholars and adds to the vital historical record of art in this country. We taxpayers are getting a good bang for our cultural buck.

You can find the magazine at select bookstores and newsstands across Canada for a scant $4.95. Or you can get a free subscription and other benefits by becoming a "Friend of the National Gallery." Call 613-990-1298 for details.

Hey, and speaking of Canadian Art magazine -- a little bit of gossip. Check out the back page article in the fall edition. It's written by one Jess Atwood Gibson. That's the daughter of Margaret Atwood, all grown up and launching a writing career of her own.

Claude Monet (1840-1926), A Stormy Sea / Mer agitée, c.1884, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Canada Masterworks: The Krieghoff isn't the only show on the road. Thirteen priceless masterworks by celebrated Impressionist artists are currently on display at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The "exhibition traces the development of impressionism through the works of Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Louis-Eugène Boudin, Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley."

It's interesting to note that, while Impressionism evolved into being of the world's favourite artistic movements, it had a hard go at the beginning. Way back in 1874 a group of radical young artists - Gauguin, Cézanne, Monet, Boudin, Van Gogh, Degas, Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley - put on a show that rocked the arts world. They were shunned. Ridiculed. Told that their work belonged on the trash heap. But the painters prevailed and by 1886 Impressionism had become an accepted art form.

Queen of Comedy: Just a quick reminder to book your Dame Edna seats. The Dame is making her Royal Tour of Toronto and it's one of the hottest tickets in town. Here's a message straight from the lips of one of Britain's biggest queens:

"Wherever I go in the world sharing my experience, hope and strength with ecstatic audiences, I nurse a spooky little hope that one day I'll be able to squeeze Toronto into my tight schedule. This time it's going to happen! My dignified old producers saw my record-breaking, Tony Award-winning Broadway run, and sell-out San Francisco show, and have been making a nuisance of themselves ever since. 'Please Dame Edna,' they grovel, 'Isn't it time those theatrically deprived folk in Toronto got a glimpse of you in the flesh? They're wearing out all their old videos of all your British TV shows and they are suffering from a terminal case of EDS (Edna Deprivation Syndrome)."

If you like your camp out of the closet, don't miss Dame Edna.