Published 2026-09-10
By Loredana Vale · Editor, reporting
What came after the Paintbrush Factory: a house in the centre, five reviews, and an exhibition that is open
Centrul de Interes operates in the Hintz House, at Regele Ferdinand 1. It has published hours, exhibitions and guided tours. It also has five Google reviews, against 176 for the Factory that closed.
This month we wrote about the closure of the Paintbrush Factory in March 2022, and about the statement that called it “a collective failure”. The obvious question went unwritten: what came next.
One answer is Centrul de Interes.
Where it is, and when it is open
The Hintz House, Strada Regele Ferdinand 1 — in the centre, a short walk from Piața Unirii, not in an industrial hall in Mărăști.
Tuesday–Friday: 11:00–13:30 and 15:00–18:30. Saturday: 14:00–17:00. Closed Sunday and Monday.
Guided tours can be arranged on +40 770 495883 or +40 770 495544. Contact: [email protected].
Those hours are published on their own site, which is more than most art spaces in the city manage. We note it here because it is worth saying when someone does the right thing.
What is open now
The exhibition “Ce n-a fost în anul nou care n-a fost”, 1 June – 30 July 2026.
The programme also lists the launch of the volume “Florin Ștefan, Works 1984–2025 — Acts of Memory”.
The numbers, which say something the hours do not
Centrul de Interes draws 260 searches a month in Romania, 170 in Cluj. It has five Google reviews. Five.
The Paintbrush Factory, closed since 2022, has 176 reviews and nearly seven hundred monthly searches.
So the place that no longer exists is thirty-five times more present in reviews than the place that followed it. That is not a judgement about quality — it is a measure of how long a reputation takes to move from one address to another.
The difference between them is not the programme, nor the exhibitions. It is time. The Factory had thirteen years to gather 176 reviews; Centrul de Interes has a careful site, clear hours, and is only starting.
Why this matters to anyone searching
Because a guide that ranked spaces by popularity would put Centrul de Interes somewhere near the bottom, beside the galleries with no website, and it would be wrong. Here there are published hours, tours on request, a phone that answers, and an exhibition with dates.
The instruments we use — searches and reviews — are good at saying who is already known. They are poor at saying who deserves to be.
What this is about
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Școala de la Cluj
A term coined in another country, for a generation that never called itself that.
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Centrul de Interes
A hub of studios and creative spaces, in Casa Hintz.
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Fabrica de Pensule
An independent cultural centre in a former paintbrush factory, opened in 2009 and closed for good in March 2022. Two thousand square metres, twenty-nine art spaces.
Sources (2)
- centruldeinteres.ro · 2026-09-10 Adresa, programul, telefoanele, expoziția curentă și evenimentele
- www.google.com/maps · 2026-09-10 Numărul de recenzii pentru Centrul de Interes și pentru Fabrica de Pensule