ROBERT Teed and Paula Jackson, curators of the New School House Gallery in York, have brought together five artists and craftsmen for the exhibition In My Craft Or Art.

The contemporary art gallery will be exhibiting work by Lucy Elsie Harvey, Stella Harding, Hélène Uffren, Seiko Kinoshita and Paul Reid until May 26.

As artistic director Robert Teed explains: “The exhibition’s title is an allusion to the Dylan Thomas poem, In My Craft Or Sullen Art. As you can see, we have taken the ‘sullen’ out of art. What we have on display are both beautiful and at times disconcerting, even disturbing objects.

“I’m happy if the show prompts the visitor to ask: when is art craft or craft art? Do those distinctions carry any weight any longer?’”

Robert continues: “What we have here are five extremely talented artists working in inherently domestic forms – textiles, basketry, glass, ceramic, metalwork – but creating work that moves beyond the confines of one particular discipline. None has exhibited in York before, and I’m delighted that we’re giving residents and visitors in the city this opportunity to admire some of the big names of tomorrow.”

One of the surprising aspects of the show is the debt that the curator’s role owes to Twitter. The social networking site is derided by many as a mire of the banal and facile, but Robert is finding it increasingly useful as a means of making artistic connections.

“Maybe it’s because I am banal and facile, but Twitter is a great way to make links in a very serendipitous way,” he says. “I’d been following Lucy Elsie Harvey (@lucyowl) for a long time, aware of her work as being the sort that really appeals to me – the way she mixes found objects and silver-work to create small-scale sculptures that have a totemic power. Through Lucy’s tweets I stumbled on Stella Harding (@stellaharding1), whose wonderful abstract forms are created with basketry techniques.”

It turns out both Lucy and Stella had been part of the Crafts Council’s Hothouse 2010 cohort – a prestigious programme in which the best artist-makers are selected for mentoring and development – as had the third artist selected for this month’s show, Hélène Uffren.

Hélène’s glass-based work is exploring an optical theme at present. “I use the optical and reflective qualities of glass combined with mixed-media to create objects of curiosity,” she says.

The final two exhibitors are Seiko Kinoshita, a Japanese textile artist based in Sheffield, whose serene, woven abstract forms explore texture, colour and pattern; and Paul Reid, a young potter from Manchester, who was discovered by the York gallery during its first graduate show, 53 Degrees North, in 2010.

• The New School House Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm; admission is free. For more details, visit schoolhousegallery.co.uk