Gibson was on the Council of the Government School of Design (now the Royal College of Arts) established in 1837 and spearheaded the early creation of a branch school of design in Spitalfields that achieved valuable results. He was then appointed to the Royal Commission of The Great Exhibition of 1851. In subsequent years he was a Juror at the Exposition Universelle (1855) and a British Commissioner at the International Exposition (1867), both held in Paris, and was awarded a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He also helped organise the Annual International Exhibitions held in London in the 1870s. Gibson was in addition a long-serving Councillor and benefactor of University College London and University College Hospital.