Fifty-four London youths aged 16 to 19 will become impromptu artists, staging dance, music and film events in a project led by the Southbank Centre and Tate.

Through December, 24 cultural organizations are running a ``Street Genius'' campaign inviting young people from nearby areas -- the London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark -- to make shows, films and exhibitions, organizers said at the Royal Festival Hall.

The youths, dressed in matching campaign T-shirts, posed outside with Southbank Centre Chief Executive Michael Lynch and Tate Director Nicholas Serota, who joined them in clenching fists and screaming ``I am a street genius!'' One teenage girl held up her guitar for the picture; another wore zebra leggings.

Seventeen-year-old rap artist Alika ``A.J.'' Agidi-Jeffs, who is working with the London Sinfonietta, pointed a cordless black mike at the camera lens. ``I play the microphone,'' he said when asked to identify his instrument.

Agidi-Jeffs, whose parents are from Ghana and Nigeria, spent several days in a jail cell for offenses that he declined to cite. ``I'd rather not say,'' he said. ``I'm not going to get into any more trouble. Let me find something to do with myself.'' The rap artist said he is starting a job in September.