Hallie Williamson assists a crew member on the set of "The PJs" at Will Vinton Studios.

By SAMANTHA MOORES

PORTLAND, Oregon— From the outside, the nondescript warehouse in Portland's teeming industrial hub gives no clues that crews inside are hard at work on production of a major network television series. No signs identify the set, no security guards block the entrance, no passwords are necessary to enter the building. Aside from a smile or wave, no one gives Hallie Williamson a second glance as she walks into the studio and picks up her assignment.

At home among the artists, animators, technicians, and designers who bring the foam puppets to life on the animated Fox series "The PJs," 16-year-old Hallie is no seasoned TV veteran. In fact, this energetic redhead in khakis and sneakers has just come from a full day of classes at The Northwest Academy. The independent secondary school pulls from the city's resources to offer its students an arts-infused curriculum, a solid background in cutting-edge technologies, and plenty of opportunities to learn from working professionals. Some might see Will Vinton Studios-where the series is produced and filmed-as an unlikely classroom, but The Northwest Academy thinks it is the ideal place for Hallie to learn the art and craft of television production work.

As part of the school's media-arts immersion program, Hallie spends one afternoon a week as an intern for "The PJs." Her work on the show takes place behind the scenes, usually in the studio's model department where she makes lips and eyebrows for puppets, paints eyelids, washes tiny ears and elbows, or forms miniature corn flakes and Cocoa Puffs from clay. Hallie's tasks may be small, but the lessons she is learning are significant.

"I'm just glad I'm not running coffee around here," Hallie jokes. Industry hopefuls twice her age would kill to run coffee on a real set, but that doesn't phase this poised, confident teenager. "When they give me a project, I don't have a choice. I have to do it. That discipline has helped me with homework and other things I don't always want to do," she explains. "It has also made school a lot more relevant."

Making the arts relevant is at the core of The Northwest Academy's philosophy. The school offers a roster of specialized classes in performing, visual, and media arts, most of them taught by professionals in each field. Job shadow and internship opportunities abound. State-of-the-art video and audio labs allow students to learn not just from textbooks but by actually recording songs and shooting pictures. Instead of treating arts as an extracurricular diversion or esoteric pursuit, this school encourages students to approach the arts as realistic careers, or at least as skills and processes that might prove useful in other fields. Hallie, for instance, now hopes to make a career in "the technical side of filmmaking-editing, cinematography, postproduction stuff."

"Arts education is so often a theoretical discipline, and so few bridges are ever built to the application of arts and industry, architecture, city planning, and the multimedia industries," says Mary Folberg, the school's founder and Director of Education. "We feel arts are integral to everybody. They are basic human education."

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