In this thesis, we develop the methodology for exploring the electronic and optical properties of an artificial benzene ring, both analytically as well as numerically through direct diagonalization using the configuration interaction method. We use the extended Hubbard Hamiltonian to model the interactions with different numbers of electrons, with spin projection and total spin resolved as good quantum numbers. The focus in this work is on the charged case and the emergence of an artificial gauge field and how it can be detected optically. We also examine three other cases of the artificial benzene ring, the single electron case, the charge neutral or half filled case, and the quarter filled case. Ground state properties, excited state spectra, and interactions with light are described.