ONE of the amazing and magical aspects of visual arts is the feeling of being transported out of your daily existence to forget about your worries and expectations and to be confronted with someone else's creative vision. To give time for your being to open up and space to contemplate, leaving the exhibition feeling transported to thinking new thoughts good or bad. Over these Halloween holidays which exhibitions might give you that experience?

1. The Royal Ulster Academy annual exhibition has opened at the free-to-visit Ulster Museum. The exhibition features Royal Ulster Academy members and artists selected from their open call. It's notable that photography is declining, but painting, which is always well represented, continues to shine. This is the most visited art exhibition annually in Belfast and offers the viewer a chance to get lost in looking at landscapes and portraits and everything else, to wonder why some of the pieces are included and – one of my personal favourites – to listen to other people are saying about different art pieces. There are  opportunities for schools to have self-guided visits with their own teachers or bookable meet-the-artists events for key stages 3 and 4 and A-Level as well as inspirational talks for A-Level students. To inquire or book, email schools@royalulsteracademy.org – but you do not have to be at school to enjoy the exhibition. There are tours in Irish and Spanish as well as English on different Saturday afternoons

Royal Ulster Academy annual exhibition at Ulster Museum, open until January 2024, Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm. 

2. At the Mac in the top gallery is 'Korakrit Arunanondchat: No History in a Room Filled with People with Funny Names 5.' It takes about 40 minutes to experience  the whole multiscreen immersive art, sitting on a beanbag or chair. The piece transports you to Thailand and there is a thread running through it of care givers and care receivers. The global story of  the youth football team that got stuck in a cave there – later to be transformed into the film ThIrteen – features in the art piece. The experience is transformative. Louise  Wallace and Sharon Kelly's exhibition is still open and there are places and spaces for children to use the imagination stations to keep their minds and hands occupied 

3. A wee bit further into November and we have two festivals – Outburst Queer Arts Festival and Belfast Film Festival. Outburst has everything from a Queer Art market to a Sonic Séance in the sonic art research centre at Queen's. If you have never experienced this room – with a metal grid for a floor and more speakers than you could ever imagine – it's a fun experience. Ulster Presents art gallery at Ulster University will show Alice O'Malley's 'Community of Elsewheres.' Known for her portraits of New York's most notorious downtown personalities, it will be a rare opportunity to see this icon of photography.

Belfast Film Festival gives lots of opportunity to catch films in various states of becoming, from Kneecap's work in progress case study event at the Black  Box with the Fine Point film team who are putting the documentary together, to industry breakfasts and short film competition results. And Movie-oke – yes, you guessed it, where you get the opportunity to sing a song from a featured movie karaoke-style. For a number of years the festival has been featuring an opportunity to see a number of virtual reality short films. This year you can do so in the company of other VR film buffs, all watching the same film but with an external surroundsound. Is this a precursor of the cinemas of the future? Only time will tell. 

Outburst Queer Arts Festival runs from November 9 to 18. 

Belfast Film festival runs 2-11 November.