We may not agree on everything as a community, but longtime locals will likely agree on a simple statement: downtown Eau Claire has experienced one heck of a renaissance over the past 20 years. Entrepreneurs and small business owners have been pivotal change-makers during that time, and many continue to call downtown their stomping grounds today – including Erin Klaus.

A familiar face on Barstow Street, Erin is the co-owner of downtown retail staple and local arts purveyor Tangled Up in Hue. First opening on Barstow in 2009, Erin says the past 16 years have been a blur, but her mission has largely stayed the same: build community.

Before Tangled Up in Hue opened its brick-and-mortar doors, Erin was a UW-Eau Claire student in a vastly different downtown than the one she works in today. After graduating in 2005, she jumped into grad school a world away from Eau Claire, down in Arizona. Erin recalled being in awe of the sheer amount of public art integrated into the city, a clear investment in the arts she had not seen before.

It was a sharp contrast to the downtown Eau Claire scene Erin had traveled from. But when her mom got cancer for the third time, Erin knew she needed to go home, and she needed to get more involved.

“Many of us remember when downtown was pretty much a ghost town, and there were plenty of vacant storefronts,” she recalled. “Although it was a little intimidating, being 24 years old and contemplating (opening my own shop), I knew it was something I wanted to try.” With her partner-in-business, Jamie Kyser, the duo made the move to Barstow Street.

“We had some interesting moments being young, female business owners trying to navigate entrepreneurship in a not-yet-revitalized downtown,” she continued. They originally planned on utilizing the space as their studio and traveling to art shows, and hoped that people would actually come into the store to shop, one day.

To Erin and Jamie’s surprise, the day Tangled Up in Hue opened, people came out in troves. “Our grand opening proved to us that people had an interest in supporting local art,” Erin said.

Since that era of Erin’s life, she has gotten used to hitting the ground running at just about every turn. With Jamie as a business partner and a growing community of powerhouse entrepreneurs and invested locals, Tangled Up in Hue continued to grow alongside downtown Eau Claire.

Two years into business, Tangled Up launched the Artist Market event series, and it has returned year after year, bigger and better, for 14 years. The shop has continued to grow, too, platforming more and more local artists, so much so that the store expanded into a bigger space (Erin and Jamie didn’t move too far, just to the other side of the Barstow Street). Then the Kids Artist Market launched in 2023 – an idea brought to Erin and Jamie by another Vanguard Award honoree, Chad Rowekamp – creating even more opportunity to cultivate local arts and encourage community involvement.

Of course, there were plenty of hurdles and necessary pivots over the past 16 years, but Erin also found herself steering into those challenges; She found another avenue to get involved with the community after being invited to join the South Barstow Business Improvement District, a collective of other downtown business owners and locals formed to bolster the area. 

Erin served on the South Barstow BID board for over a decade and was chairperson for the last five years of her tenure on the board – which she exited in order to become part of Downtown Eau Claire, Inc. (DECI) – during which time she saw many projects come to life: lights were installed on Barstow Street; recycling bins were placed downtown; infrastructure continued to develop; and the music that plays outside, provided by Converge Media, came to life. 

“Those meetings, those interactions and networking, made me realize how much we can all do together,” Erin said. “I just can’t keep my hands out of local business and downtown Eau Claire. I love it more than anything.”

With a unique background as a small business owner in the Chippewa Valley, and years of experience seeing the power of positive change on downtown Eau Claire, Erin became the Executive Director of DECI in 2024. Last year, she saw the organization through the most critical change in its 23-year history: becoming an independent nonprofit.

After separating from the City of Eau Claire in late 2024, a months-long legal process, DECI is in new territory, though its goals – to bring economic vibrancy to the downtown area and advocate for the businesses there – have remained steadfast.

“Having a successful downtown is one of the most important things that any community can have; Downtowns are the heartbeat of a community,” Erin said.

In the past year, DECI has continued many of its downtown bolstering programs – like the annual Jump-Start Downtown competition and Downtown Enhancement Grants that award thousands of dollars, an expanded Fall Festival, etc. – and has already started new efforts, including the Mix ’N Mingle Business Networking Event, which connected local entrepreneurs with DECI members, face-to-face. 

While Erin acknowledges the local landscape for small businesses has not become any less nuanced over the years – especially following the peak of COVID-19 – the challenges are far outweighed by the connections gained and the progress made.

“My vision for downtown Eau Claire is that we are a place that people don’t think twice about coming to,” Erin said. “We can affect change but only if we’re at the point where we’re willing to insert ourselves into the mix, understand the issues, and see a brighter future.”