A little store in Arlington is teaching an ancient practice to a worldwide audience. Kevin Kennedy, owner of Upholstery on Broadway, is teaching upholstery, the craft of maintaining and restoring antique furniture, through online classes that are viewed across the globe. Kennedy has been an upholsterer for more than 40 years, and over the past three decades he has taught classes across the state. In 2010, he started his own store in Arlington, and began teaching classes out of the store. “The classes were so popular, we began running out of space so I had to figure out how to reach more students,” Kennedy said. With the help of his son, Patrick, Kennedy set up a video camera and got to work, uploading short videos on upholstery to YouTube. The videos proved to be an instant success, as upholsters working from homes around the world tuned in to listen to Kennedy’s expertise. “Upholstery has already been a popular thing for people to learn, in all of the adult education programs I worked in, the upholstery class was always one of the most popular classes,” Kennedy said. “Through our YouTube channel, we were able to reach such a wide audience, we have nearly one million total views across all of our videos.” The business was also aided by AJ Daddario, who worked as the company’s web developer and Mikayla Dows, who works as the art director. Although the YouTube videos were a success, they were limited in how much they could teach through short video clips, and the experience was very different from taking a class. In order to go more in depth, Kennedy began offering online courses for a fee, giving anyone with access to a computer a chance to get real instruction for their upholstery project.
