This article is part of a series on art today to support the Dazed x Converse Emerging Artists Award  Check out the rest of content here and make sure to visit the Royal Academy in London before 17th May to see all the work IRL. 

We’re anxious about the future of culture. With art schools now costing up to £9,000 per year in the UK, a creative education is a privilege few can afford. Artist pay is low. Costs of living and studio spaces are high. Public funding is declining. The numbers don’t add up and with an election on our doorstep it’s time to get political. In association with the Converse x Dazed Emerging Artists Award we’re determined to make creativity an election issue.

In this film maverick artists collective LuckyPDF explore how the political climate has created the current conditions for artists. Through the vehicle of their School of Global Art – an online and real-world network of creatives and tongue-in-cheek conceptual venture – they pose the difficult questions to some big art world names.

Because the future of culture looks bleak.
Because education is for everyone.
Because art is an election issue.
Because the solution will be creative.

Art & Politics is created by James Early for LuckyPDF. 

With thanks to: Niru Ratnam, Co-Founder of Artists for the NHS, Director of START Art Fair, Director of Prudential Eye Programme. Rózsa Farkas, Founding Director and co-curator/editor of Arcadia Missa, London. Francesca Gavin, writer, curator and editor, Visual Arts Editor at Dazed. Abigail Jones, Artist & writer. Hannah Hood, Artist. Rebecca Livesey-Wright, Artist, Occupy UAL. Cliff Lauson, Curator, Hayward Gallery. Southbank Centre’s Changing Britain Festival runs until 9th May. 2nd Camera: John Hill

The Emerging Artists Award 2015 is free entry and is open April 18–May 17 at Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts