Sky Milk, Basement Art & Halfmoon Chimes At Eaux Claires 2026
original iterations of Eaux Claires offered wildly ambitious visual art installations, this year's installs continue to invite curiosity and interaction
Evelyn Nelson, McKenna Scherer, photos by Luong Huynh, Andrea Paulseth |
Think back to earlier iterations of the Eaux Claires music and arts gathering, where the grassy basin and forested landscape at Foster Farms in the Town of Union transformed into fertile grounds for ambitious art installations between 2015 and 2018.
If you were in attendance back then (as a number of Volume One staffers were), you may remember the 2017 Midwestern living room scenes that mirrored those family holiday dinners spent avoiding the in-laws; incredibly complex wooden arches which radiated like the sunrise at dawn over the Chippewa River; the lit-up trails folks had to wander and hike through in order to discover the installations which awaited.
Or consider the unique 2017 waterworks-style display, leaning into the varied weather of the outdoor festival; the feathers with poetic fragments, scattered along forest trails around the festival's most secluded and magical stages – it was all part of the discovery.
From its inception through the 2018 iteration, Eaux Claires was guided by the creative direction of Michael Brown, who really set the tone for what was an intricate, meticulous curation toward one purpose: to foster an environment where attendees could have entirely unique experiences depending on what they stumbled upon.
“They’re not just decorations for the festival, you know? One of the whole goals of the art program is specifically to get people in the mindset of an altered reality or a different way of thinking about things,” Brown shared with Volume One ahead of Eaux Claires Troix in 2017.
Fast forward nearly ten years and the Eaux Claires festival revival at Carson Park – guided by the creative eye of Eau Claire's own RT Vrieze, co-founder of Knorth Studios – channels some of this original spirit while leaning into that “waiting to be found” quality. Arts installations were generally marked across the festival’s site map, requiring attendees to venture to those points.
“Even after an eight-year break, that vibe is still here and people are approaching (the art) with curiosity and wanting to engage with it.”
ben holmen
eau claire visual artist, all around tech wizard
As attendees made their way into the combined football and baseball fields of Carson Park, there were a handful of art installations there to greet folks. One only had to look upward to spot two massive flags – one which read “MAGIC,” behind the baseball field stage, and the other... a glass of milk – that captured the attention of most everyone, iPhones and cameras alike.
While attendees may not have realized at first glance, this banner – “Tolerance Flag (Sky Milk)” by Eric Timothy Carlson – was one hallmark of the nine total Eaux Claires artist activations throughout the festival grounds.
Hailing originally from Minneapolis, Minn., the multidisciplinary creative is likely best known to the Chippewa Valley for his contributions to the Bon Iver 22, A Million album artwork.
Carlson’s installation, akin to Brown’s original aims for the festival, proves viewers can reinterpret and breathe fresh life into the imagery via their own unique engagement.
In true baseball spirit, Carson Park's dugouts and bleacher seating – where VIP ticket holders could relax under the grandstand awning and check other artist installations – also included the semi-hidden “Eaux Claire Time Machine” installation by Eau Claire’s own Erik Elstran.
Elstran, who also brought his knack for multimedia visuals to the Eaux Claires Opening Ceremony show just two days prior, converted a corner of one dugout into what could be described as a mirror of his own home's basement.
Dozens of analog televisions in all shapes and sizes, some of which could be partially controlled by the time-telling arms of adjacent clocks, played homemade video clips from roadways and landscapes across Eau Claire – some from decades goneby, some from the present.
“Have you ever seen our ‘Old Eau Claire’ Facebook page?” Erickson asked me as we stood near the installation on day two. “Roy Hoff, he’s been documenting stuff since like the '80s.”
Elstran incorporated both a blend of Hoff’s recordings and new clips he shot from the past few months in downtown Eau Claire. The installation also featured a one-person seating area, with a booklet which asked: “What’s your first memory of Eau Claire?”
Anecdotes penned by 2026 festival attendees at the "Eaux Claire Time Machine" installation
“Touring UWEC 2021… 22, AM mural downtown started alllllll this” –unknown
“Jazz Fest 2018” –Jordan
“2026, Love from China” –unknown
“I fell in love with Staš Hable during the Phoebe Bridgers set in 2018 – now we’re going to be married in 2 weeks!” –Melanie Buccholz
“Thank you for putting this on, we are so grateful to host!” –Pat and the EC Parks & Rec Team
“Driving from Thorp in a minivan to go bowling” –scribbled name (can’t read it, sorry!)
“Took a roadtrip here with my best friend, from Colorado, in 2020. It’s been my favorite town since. This is my first festival!” –Aubrey
“Driving with the windows down saying “Ooooh Claire?? Uuuuu Claire? I don’t know how to say it…” –Sarah & Ryan
“Yesterday! Walking down Water Street for the pre-festival.” –From ATL, Amber & Ryan
“Halloween of 2005, just moved here at the age of 9 and went trick-or-treating in my grandma’s neighborhood.” –Molly
“Craving a butterscotch dillybar from my carseat in the minivan – didn’t say anything cause I didn’t know how to talk but I knew what I liked.” –Cale
“The sticky floor at The Pickle! Ewwwww” –Renee H.
Almost every artist installation at Eaux Claires sought audience interactivity, but this particular one gave out-of-town ticketholders the chance to not only read about locals’ early memories and funny-but-true bar stories (the floor at The Pickle will be sticky forever, probably), but also better understand the Northwoods community which they were entering.
Other notable art installs around the festival grounds included fabric tapestries titled “Sky by Day, Sky by Night” by Rachel Hayes (Oklahoma); a continuous clip from “The Ice House” by Erinn Springer (Minnesota); “Basement,” a built-out dining room-style structure under the football field's bleachers, complete with plates of fake raw meat on a table, by Andy Ducett (Minnesota); the hand-painted “Welcome Sign” in front of Carson Park by Michael Cerda of Milwaukee.
Cerda also left other artful surprises throughout Carson Park – a nod to the festival’s Writers In Residence lineup. Guests could discover hand-lettered mailboxes displaying labels such as “EXC,” “WORD” and “READINGS.”
These creative additions – some of our personal favorites at the fest – offered snippets of writing and ephemera from all the participating playwrights, comics and authors this year. Mailboxes would often run out of free paper goods, just as soon as they were mysteriously replenished.
Eau Claire’s own Ben Holmen further bridged the art and music realms with “Halfmoon Chimes,” located near the Chippewa Valley Museum.
He developed this installation for months leading up to the 2026 Eaux Claires (his art has also been featured in festivals prior), blending both his mechanical expertise and innate curiosity.
“Another ambition of mine (was) to break down the barrier between the performers on the (Eaux Claires) bill and the people attending. Anyone can contribute,” Holmen said during the festival. “Even after an eight-year break, that vibe is still here and people are approaching (the art) with curiosity and wanting to engage with it.”
The instrument, as he calls it, welcomed both skilled pianists and curious passersby to record and replay – via printed “receipts” – their own tunes.
Regardless of whether you feel the previous Eaux Claires art installations outshone the more intimate displays at last weekend’s gathering, the regional creatives deserve immense credit for bringing their new visions to a fresh audience of festival goers.
See if you can spot each of the nine artist installations throughout the 2026 Eaux Claires festival grounds at Carson Park (100 Carson Park Dr., Eau Claire) in Volume One's Friday and Saturday photosets.
