THE 150-year-history of Glasgow's Art Club will be celebrated as part of this year's festival celebrating the life and work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

The new programme for the sixth festival celebrating the legacy of the architect and artist includes 40 events in venues across Glasgow and outwith the city.

The festival, in October, attracted 100,000 visitors last year, organisers said, and will be part of the run up to the 150th anniversary of Mackintosh's birth in 2018.

2018 is an important year for the Mackintosh legacy: it will see a major new exhibition at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, as well as the re-opening of The Willow tea room in Sauchiehall Street on June 7, Mackintosh's 150th birthday.

Mackintosh was born in Glasgow in 1868, and died in 1928.

The festival will show a small selection of drawings by Mackintosh and John Keppie at the Glasgow Art Club.

A new venue, Kelvin Hall, has been added to the programme and will have a chairs exhibition.

In Helensburgh at the Mackintosh Club, there will be an exhibition dedicated to Mackintosh's love of Japanese culture, called A Threaded Story.

The Glasgow School of Art will host walking tours and Mackintosh at the GSA tours while a series of events will take place at the architect's only built church, Mackintosh Queen’s Cross.

Elisabeth Vigiue Culshaw will create The Big Banner – a recreation of a banner designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for Kate Cranston’s Willow Tea Rooms in 1904.

Garry Sanderson, Treasurer of Glasgow Mackintosh, commented: "This year’s festival is going to be a nice warm up for the city ahead of next year’s celebration of Mackintosh’s birth.

"The festival is now in its sixth year and we have a fantastic programme of over 40 events lined up over the course of the month in Glasgow Mackintosh and partner venues."

The Mackintosh Festival is organised by Glasgow Mackintosh, a heritage group established in 1980 by curators and managers of Mackintosh buildings and collections in and around Glasgow.