Prof. Raja Mohanty’s one of the best projects was Art @ IITB. IIT Bombay’s vision is to be a leading global technology university that provides a transformative educational experience to create leaders and innovators and generate new knowledge for society and industry". The arts enrich our aesthetic imagination and help to shape how we perceive ourselves and our surroundings. A visible display of works on the IIT Bombay campus that combine technical and artistic creativity could aid in the integration of education. This project envisaged a road-map for arts education at IIT Bombay that includes the creation of traditional and contemporary works of art on the campus; residencies, seminars, and talks by visiting artists; and mentorship to encourage students to develop an aesthetic sensibility. His other important project was the National Salt Satyagraha Memorial, Dandi. This memorial to the 80 marchers who accompanied Gandhi in upholding "Right against Might" was conceptualised by Prof. Kriti Trivedi. The beginning of an engagement with handloom weaving is an interesting "side effect" of this memorial. In 2019, Shivani Nayak, one of the graduating students from IDC School of Design, wove her own convocation scarf. The weaving initiative encourages more students to do the same. Learning from Nature and from the Indigenous Collaborative Project with Bidyut Roy and Sandeep Manchekkar project was a residency space for visiting faculty was created at Wighavali using local materials such as bamboo, mud, fired bricks, traditional terracotta tiles, and dried pipal leaves. This space is envisaged as an extension of classroom walls to spaces outside cities that enables students to come into contact with alternate realities and learn from indigenous ways of doing things and from nature. Raja Mohanty’s other important project was Understanding Visual Art Traditions. collaborative projects with practitioners of indigenous art traditions. The traditions studied included patachitra art from Orissa; Gond art from Madhya Pradesh; Madhubani from Bihar; and Pichhwai from Rajasthan. Collaborative projects took the shape of books for children and "grown-up" children! Ghanshyam Sharma from Nathdwara, Radhashyam Raut from Bhubaneswar, Durgabai, and Mansingh Vyam from Bhopal, and Sharwan Paswan from Mithila were the artists with whom the collaborative projects were done. "The Circle of Fate" published by Tara Books, Chennai, was shortlisted for the Anderson Prize, 2009. "The Enigma of Karma" was a sequel to this. "Machaan Masti", "On Inheritance", and "Cycle Ka Sapna" are some of the other learning materials for children that were created as the collaboration continued as a part of the Damroo Project, funded by the Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust.
