In this article, I examine two case studies of socially engaged art projects led by Cuban artists René Francisco Rodríguez and Lázaro Saavedra in the 1990s in Havana, Cuba. These professional artist--educators began defining curricula, art-based methodologies, and practices within tertiary art education in Cuba, re-enunciating their role of civic responsibility in society. Collaborative artistic proposals then emerged as forms of learning, encouraging problem-solving strategies when interacting with communities in situ and with the public, which I term "author pedagogies." First, I analyze the Cuban sociopolitical scenario that led to the birth of these socially engaged art (SEA) projects, considering their relations with the neo-avant-garde and the expanded notion of art. Second, I examine the modus operandi of SEA projects, aided by Mikhail Bakhtin's dialogical and carnivalesque notions, among others. These approaches demonstrate the significance of these author pedagogies in understanding "thyself" as a form of "another" transcultural subject.