The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Halloween Party (Bats on Wall), Livermore, California

c. 1971

Bill Owens

(American, b. 1938)
America
gelatin silver print
Image: 15.5 x 21.5 cm (6 1/8 x 8 7/16 in.); Paper: 20.1 x 25.2 cm (7 15/16 x 9 15/16 in.)
Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2019.280
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Visiting the United States in the 1830s, French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville observed that Americans “were forever forming associations.”

Description

Owens’s project Our Kind of People, shot mostly in the 1970s, explored American groups and rituals ranging from the Girl Scouts to Halloween parties in his native Northern California. With club membership declining today in America, the kind of formal and informal associations documented by Owens are now an endangered species.
  • ?-2019
    George Stephanopoulos [1961-], New York, NY
    December 2, 2019
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Halloween Party (Bats on Wall), Livermore, California|url=false|author=Bill Owens|year=c. 1971|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2019.280