One of the most respected institutions in Glasgow society has shed its official status as a private club as it embarks on the completion of a £1.3m renovation project.

One of the most respected institutions in Glasgow society, the Glasgow Art Club, has shed its official status as a private club, reaching out to younger generations of artists, writers and businessmen as it embarks on the completion of a £1.3m renovation project.

The club, which has occupied its Grade A-listed premises in the city's Bath Street since 1893, has, in the past two years, undergone building work to make it wind and watertight in the first stage of a three-stage revamp which should be completed by 2010.

If the funds are raised, the regeneration will culminate in the restoration of a currently unseen mural design by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Experts believe he designed the club's large gallery space when he was a young and unheralded architect working in the city. The green design originally decorated two walls of the gallery.

Crucially for its future finances, the Art Club is now a registered charity, helping in raising the money required to rehabilitate its gallery and help the club become an "open and accessible" part of cultural life in the city.

Club president Charles Anderson has told The Herald that he wishes to see its membership expand from its traditional level of around 400 to 600 or 650 members, especially attracting younger generations of artists in Glasgow.

The club is to launch an access strategy, encouraging people to join the institution, increase access to the building and its exhibitions and recitals, and enjoy its rooms for private or public functions.

"We are now going through this period of considerable change," Mr Anderson said. "We think we are Glasgow's best-kept secret and we want to open it up.

"This is a wonderful building and I think when this process is over it will be a treasure in the heart of the city.

"We have and want writers, musicians, actors, dancers, journalists. We are even going to have an exhibition of contemporary art installations."

He added: "When this club was begun, the artists involved were at the cutting edge. We want the artists at the cutting edge now to become involved."

Liz Knox, a member of the club's committee, said it wanted to attract a whole range of new members. "We do not only want to attract young people, it's people of all ages - one of the wonderful things about this club is that it is a mix of people of all ages," she said. "This is not a gentleman's club. There is a certain eccentricity to it - after all, it's an art club.

"This is a club where you can genuinely find a young artist, his jeans covered in paint, sitting talking to a pin-striped businessman, and it's not thought unusual."

Glasgow Art Club was founded in 1867 by William Dennistoun and 10 other amateur artists. They launched the club in the Waverley Temperance Hotel in Buchanan Street.

Membership grew in the 1870s, professional artists began to join and exhibitions began to be held - a tradition which continues to this day.

In 1875 the club moved to a Sauchiehall Street hotel, also called Waverley. Later it moved to the Royal Hotel in George Square and in 1878 it moved again, to 62 Bothwell Circus.

The constant need for funds led to a crucial change - the admission of "lay" members by the mid-1880s. Women, however, had to wait until 1983.

To accommodate all the newcomers in the 1880s, two adjacent town houses were bought in Bath Street.

The architect John Keppie was put in charge of their conversion. He also created the adjoining gallery in the small back gardens, whose design and decorations are now believed to be by Mackintosh.

It has long been a favourite haunt of the artistic and those involved in the business of the arts.

Some are more irreverent than others. In its new brochure, Billy Connolly says: "The Glasgow Art Club sold me an inordinate amount of alcohol and then the bastards banned me for unruly behaviour but being renowned for my kindness and compassion I forgave them and since my reinstatement I have spent many happy hours in their salubrious surroundings dunking digestive biscuits in my camomile."