Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, has donated $500,000 to UCLA‘s School of Theater, Film and Television, so that working professionals can teach classes in their animation program.
The endowment will “allow visiting master artists to teach classes” and “bring working professionals with wide-ranging expertise” to work with students, the university said in a news release.
The Simpsons is television’s longest running comedy of all time with 23 seasons under its belt and counting.
The show has won 12 Emmy Awards and a plethora of cartooning and comedy awards.
The endowment announcement was made the day before Groening gets his star along the Hollywood Walk of Fame to celebrate the show’s landmark 500th episode.
UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television has also regularly received an annual gift of $50,000 from Groening in support of animation students producing short animated films with themes emphasizing social responsibility.
“With this amazing gift, Matt has given our students enormous support and ensured that we will be able to take our program to even greater levels of excellence,” said UCLA Dean Teri Schwartz in a statement.
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