WESTFORD CENTER — A community-created LEGO mosaic celebrating neurodiversity is heading from Westford to Chicago for the BrickWorld LEGO convention.
The colorful mosaic, assembled during Westford’s annual Community LEGO Building Event in March, will be displayed next month at BrickWorld Chicago, a major fan expo that draws adult LEGO builders from across the country.
The LEGO mosaic workshop, one of the events hosted for Neurodiversity Celebration Week, was organized through the collaboration of the Westford Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC), the New England LEGO Users Group (NELUG), and local community partners during Neurodiversity Celebration Week.
“This is an exciting next step,” NELUG Community Ambassador Suzanne Eaton said. “To take an event that has done so well here in a community that was so supportive and share that with others who may want to try something similar in their own communities, that’s really exciting.”
The art piece was first created during Westford’s third annual Community LEGO Building Event, held March 20, at First Parish Church. The sensory-friendly event invited families of all ages and abilities to participate in collaborative LEGO building activities while celebrating neurodiversity and inclusion.
The mosaic itself features a brightly colored design inspired by graffiti-style artwork and includes the phrase “Embrace every mind.” Eaton said the piece is intentionally collaborative and symbolic of the community that created it.
“It’s definitely one of those builds where I want people to feel like they have some ownership in the creation,” Eaton said.
Unlike traditional art installations, the Westford mosaic is still unfinished. Eaton plans to bring the artwork’s foundation layer to BrickWorld, where neurodivergent adult LEGO fans attending the conference will help add decorative textures and personalized designs during a special workshop ahead of the public expo.
“I wanted people to feel a little ownership in it,” Eaton said. “I’ll give them a color palette and maybe an area to work in, but after that, they’re allowed to do whatever patterns or graffiti they’d like.”
What began as a small workshop idea quickly expanded after interest surged among conference attendees. Eaton originally planned for about a dozen participants, but the waiting list grew so large that BrickWorld organizers asked her to expand the workshop.
The workshop will also allow Eaton to discuss Westford’s Neurodiversity Celebration Week and how LEGO-centered community events can create welcoming and inclusive spaces.
“There’s a really big neurodivergent population in the adult LEGO-building community,” Eaton said. “I think people find comfort in it. It’s creative, peaceful and supportive, and there are so many different ways to engage with it.”
Eaton said the project also reflects the broader value of neurodiversity itself.
“Each individual contribution makes the whole more special,” she said. “That variety is what makes a community vibrant and resilient and brings different viewpoints that enrich what’s there.”
After BrickWorld, the mosaic will eventually be dismantled and reused for future public art projects, including another planned collaborative LEGO installation later this summer.
“That’s one of the things I love about LEGO,” Eaton said. “You can always rebuild it into something new.”
