Since its inception, the museum has held nearly 300 exhibitions, attracting a large number of domestic and foreign visitors. Many pieces in its collection have been exhibited in the U.S., France, Italy, Japan, Croatia, Singapore, Hong Kong (China) and Taiwan (China), contributing to promoting the image of Gansu. Meanwhile, the museum has made full use of its resources in talents and facilities to promote cultural relic protection and research.

With the "Qualification for Repairing Movable Cultural Relics" granted by the Natural Cultural Heritage Administration, the museum is undertaking cultural relic repairs across municipal and prefecture museums in Gansu province and personnel training in this regard. In recent years, the three cultural relic protection projects undertaken by the museum have won the second and third prizes of National Science & Technology Progress Award, in addition to three national patents. The museum has recorded remarkable achievements in research areas including the paleontology and ancient humans, painted pottery, great walls culture and communication between China and the West, bamboo slips, Buddhist grottoes art, West Xia Dynasty characters and history, and ancient calligraphy art.

In 2007, its three permanent exhibitions, namely Civilization Along the Silk Road Section in Gansu, Gansu Painted Pottery, and Paleontological Fossils of Gansu, won the Selected Exhibition prize of the "7th Top 10 Museum Exhibitions (2005 - 2006) in China Award". In 2011, another permanent exhibition, Gansu Buddhist Arts, won the Selected Exhibition prize of the "9th Top 10 Museum Exhibitions (2009 - 2010) in China Award". In 2013, Red Gansu – To 1949 won the Excellent Exhibition prize of the "10th Top 10 Museum Exhibitions (2011 - 2012) in China Award".

Taking advantage of its location, Gansu Provincial Museum led the establishment of Museums Committee along the Silk Road under the China Museums Association in 2010. It held joint exhibitions with museums along the Silk Road, including Silk Road - Great Treasures of Northwest China, Maritime Silk Road, Grassland Silk Road, and Tea-horse Ancient Road. Moreover, it hosted national and international academic conferences including "International Seminar on Silk Road Cultures", "Paper Road - the 4th International Symposium on Paper Protection in East Asia", and the "Second International Symposium on Bamboo Slips in Gansu". The events produced significant influences in domestic and foreign museum circles. In 2012, Gansu Provincial Museum established a friendly partnership with the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, Japan, to enhance inter-museum exchanges in culture, preservation techniques and personnel, as well as seek mutual development of cultural sectors in both countries.

Gansu Provincial Museum has been recognized as a national patriotism education base and a national science education base and has won the honor of "Advanced Group of Patriotism Education Base in Gansu Province".

In 2012, the museum joined the elite team of national first-class museums. In 2013, a permanent department, Mobile Museum, was established by the museum to offer educational activities in communities, military stations, schools, minority ethnics regions and remote mountain areas across the province. Through this initiative, the museum plans to spread its social value by staging exhibitions at the doorstep of households. In 2015, Gansu Provincial Museum was awarded the honorary title of "Provincial Civilized Unit".